List of Jewish American playwrights
Encyclopedia
This is a list of famous Jewish American playwrights. For other famous Jewish Americans, see List of Jewish Americans.
- Lynn AhrensLynn AhrensLynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years...
- Sholom AleichemSholom AleichemSholem Aleichem was the pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright...
- Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
(1935–) Academy Award-winning film director, writer, actor, and comedian - George AxelrodGeorge AxelrodGeorge Axelrod was an American screenwriter, producer, playwright and film director, best known for his play, The Seven Year Itch , which was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe...
- Jeff BaronJeff BaronJeff Baron is an American playwright and screenwriter currently living in Manhattan. He is best known for his play Visiting Mr. Green . Baron’s plays have been said to focus primarily on family relationships and conflicts, friendship, romance, sex, and the need for human connection...
- S. N. BehrmanS. N. BehrmanSamuel Nathaniel Behrman was an American playwright and screenwriter, who also worked for the New York Times.-Early Years:...
- David BelascoDavid BelascoDavid Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
- Saul BellowSaul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
- Leo BirinskiLeo BirinskiLeo Birinski was a playwright, screenwriter and director. He worked in Austria-Hungary, Germany and in the United States. As a playwright in Europe he gained his biggest popularity in 1910 – 1917, then he was forgotten. From the 20s to the 40s of the 20th century he worked mainly as a...
- Mel BrooksMel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
- Paddy ChayefskyPaddy ChayefskySidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay....
- Betty Comden & Adolph Green
- Norman CorwinNorman CorwinNorman Lewis Corwin was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing...
- Howard DietzHoward DietzHoward Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
- Edward EinhornEdward EinhornEdward Einhorn is an American playwright, theater director, and novelist, noted for the comic absurdism of his drama and the imaginative richness of his literary works....
- Eve EnslerEve EnslerEve Ensler is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues.- Personal life :...
- Harvey FiersteinHarvey FiersteinHarvey Forbes Fierstein is a U.S. actor and playwright, noted for the early distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the...
- Edna FerberEdna FerberEdna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
- Herb Gardner
- Larry GelbartLarry GelbartLarry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
- Josh GreenfeldJosh GreenfeldJosh Greenfeld is an author and screenwriter mostly known for his screenplay for the 1974 film Harry and Tonto along with Paul Mazursky, which earned them an Academy Award nomination and its star, Art Carney, the Oscar itself for Best Actor...
- Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
- Otto HarbachOtto HarbachOtto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...
- Yip HarburgYip HarburgEdgar Yipsel Harburg , known as E.Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American popular song lyricist who worked with many well-known composers...
- Moss HartMoss HartMoss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
- Ben HechtBen HechtBen Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
- Lillian HellmanLillian HellmanLillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
- Peretz HirshbeinPeretz HirshbeinPeretz Hirshbein was a Yiddish-language playwright, instrumental in the revival of Yiddish theater in Russia shortly after the 1904 lifting of the 1883 ban on theatrical performances in that language...
- Israel HorovitzIsrael HorovitzIsrael Horovitz is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Theatre career:An American dramatist, Horovitz has written more than 70 produced plays, many of which have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages worldwide . The 70/70 Horovitz Project was created by NYC Barefoot Theatre...
- Sidney HowardSidney HowardSidney Coe Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.-Early life:...
- George JesselGeorge Jessel (actor)George Albert Jessel was an American illustrated song "model," actor, singer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning movie producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies...
- George S. KaufmanGeorge S. KaufmanGeorge Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
- Sidney KingsleySidney KingsleySidney Kingsley was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934.- Biography :...
- Tony KushnerTony KushnerAnthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
- James LapineJames LapineJames Lapine is an American stage director and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.-Biography:Lapine was born in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated...
- Arthur LaurentsArthur LaurentsArthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
- H. LeivickH. LeivickH. Leivick was a Yiddish language writer, known for his 1921 "dramatic poem in eight scenes" The Golem...
- Alan Jay LernerAlan Jay LernerAlan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
- Ira LevinIra LevinIra Levin was an American author, dramatist and songwriter.-Professional life:Levin attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa...
- Craig LucasCraig LucasCraig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...
- David MametDavid MametDavid Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
- Donald MarguliesDonald MarguliesDonald Margulies is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University...
- Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
- Becky ModeBecky ModeBecky Mode is an American playwright, actress and television producer based in New York City. Raised in Washington DC, she studied theater and American History at Wesleyan University, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Her major accomplishments to date include the play Fully Committed...
- Itamar MosesItamar MosesItamar Moses is an American playwright, author, and television writer.Moses grew up in Berkeley, California, earned his bachelor's degree at Yale University, and his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University...
- Clifford OdetsClifford OdetsClifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
- Jonathan RandJonathan RandJonathan Rand is a playwright born in Jacksonville, Florida. According to the annual survey conducted by the Educational Theatre Association, his short plays are the most produced in North American high schools. As of November 2011, Jonathan Rand's plays have been produced over 5,800 times in all...
- Carl ReinerCarl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
- Elmer RiceElmer RiceElmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene.-Early years:...
- Morrie RyskindMorrie RyskindMorrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and motion pictures, who became a conservative political activist later in life.-Biography:...
- Rod SerlingRod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
- Irwin ShawIrwin ShawIrwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...
- Wallace ShawnWallace ShawnWallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
- Sidney SheldonSidney SheldonSidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
- Martin ShermanMartin ShermanMartin Sherman is an American dramatist and screenwriter, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent , which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust...
- Neil SimonNeil SimonNeil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
- Isaac Bashevis SingerIsaac Bashevis SingerIsaac Bashevis Singer – July 24, 1991) was a Polish Jewish American author noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978...
- Jill SolowayJill SolowayJill Soloway is an American comedian, playwright, a feminist and an Emmy-nominated television writer.Soloway was an executive producer and show-runner of the Showtime show The United States of Tara created by writer Diablo Cody. Soloway exited the show in November 2009...
— playwright, television writer - Aaron SorkinAaron SorkinAaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
(1961–) screenwriter, producer and playwright - Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
- Joseph SteinJoseph SteinJoseph Stein was an American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.-Biography:...
- Jeffrey SweetJeffrey SweetJeffrey Sweet is an American writer, journalist, songwriter and theatre historian. Sweet's father was the late James Sweet, a science writer for the University of Chicago who aided Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren in drafting two anti-McCarthy speeches; his mother is violinist Vivian...
- Alfred UhryAlfred UhryAlfred Fox Uhry is an American playwright, screenwriter, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is one of very few writers to receive an Academy Award, Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing....
- Wendy WassersteinWendy WassersteinWendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
(1950–2006) playwright and an Andrew Dickson WhiteAndrew Dickson WhiteAndrew Dickson White was a U.S. diplomat, historian, and educator, who was the co-founder of Cornell University.-Family and personal life:...
Professor-at-Large at Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, also the recipient of the Tony AwardTony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Play and the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for Drama - Jerome WeidmanJerome WeidmanJerome Weidman was an American playwright and novelist. He collaborated with George Abbott on the book for the musical Fiorello! with music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick...
- Franz WerfelFranz WerfelFranz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...
- Norman WexlerNorman WexlerNorman Wexler was a screenwriter whose work included such films as Saturday Night Fever, Serpico and Joe, for which he received an Oscar nomination in 1971...
screenwriter of "Saturday Night Fever","Joe", "Serrpic", "Mandingo" - Rory WinstonTurn left at GilgameshTurn left at Gilgamesh is a play by , in which civilization develops solely through a series of misunderstandings.Winston's first full-length effort, Turn Left at Gilgamesh centers around 3 characters whose every effort to be understood furthers their sense of alienation...
Playwright, poet, comedy writer, reviewer
See also
- List of Jewish American authors
- List of Jewish American poets
- Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
- Before Columbus FoundationBefore Columbus FoundationThe Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, Victor Hernández Cruz, Shawn Wong and Rudolfo Anaya to be "a multi-ethnic organizing dedicated to promoting a pan-cultural view of America," especially through the promotion of multicultural writers.One of...