STEVEN LEVENSON is the Tony Award-winning book writer of Dear Evan Hansen. His plays include If I Forget, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, Days of Rage, and The Language of Trees. Honors include the Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award, and the Helen Hayes Award. He worked for three seasons as a writer and producer on Showtime’s Masters of Sex and is a founding member of Colt Coeur and an alumnus of MCC’s Playwrights Coalition and Ars Nova’s Play Group. His work has been published by Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts. A graduate of Brown University, he is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and the WGA. Upcoming projects include the limited series Fosse/Verdon (FX) and the film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…boom!
EPISODE 118- JILL KARGMAN
A born and bred New Yorker, Jill Kargman is the creator, writer, producer and star of the scripted comedy “Odd Mom Out” in which Ms. Kargman played a satirical version of herself navigating the hilarity of raising children on the upper east side in NYC.
After graduating, and working for magazines, television and movies, Ms. Kargman began writing novels to give her more flexibility to be home with her three children: Sadie, Ivy, and Fletch. She is a New York Times best-selling author of multiple books, and her most recent book, a comedic essay collection, “Sprinkle Glitter on my Grave”, was published in September 2016 by Random House.
She made her Café Carlyle debut in January 2017 with her sold out show Stairway to Cabaret ~ singing heavy metal songs ~ cabaret style.
Jill hosts the Jill Kargman show on SiriusXM Stars Channel 109.
Jill is also a performer with the Upright Citizens Brigade improvisational and sketch comedy group.
Jill recently made an appearance in her first Hollywood studio movie, A Bad Moms Christmas.
EPISODE 115- RORY O'MALLEY INTERVIEWS ILANA
Rory O’Malley asked Ilana to be a guest on his podcast “Living The Dream” and this week Ilana shares the episode on her own podcast platform.
Rory starred as King George III in the smash hit Hamilton on Broadway and in Los Angeles. He is best known for starring in the original company of The Book Of Mormon on Broadway. He received both Tony and Drama Desk nominations for playing openly closeted Mormon Elder McKinley and performing the show stopper "Turn It Off". Most recently he was seen on stage in back to back Off-Broadway productions at Second Stage's Nobody Loves You (Drama Desk nomination) and Little Miss Sunshine. His broadway debut was in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and regionally, he created the role of Richie Cunningham in Garry Marshall’s Happy Days The Musical for Goodspeed Opera House and Paper Mill Playhouse. Rory expanded his repertoire of pasty white dudes by butchering the song “Cadillac Car” as lead singer of ‘Dave and the Sweethearts’ in the Paramount Pictures film Dreamgirls.
Most recently, Rory was seen on the CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He can also be seen on the small screen in episodes of Partners with Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence, Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU, and 1600 Penn.
This year Rory premiered his autobiographical show Pub Crawl to a sold out crowd at Joe's Pub in New York City. Pub Crawl is his tale of being raised in an Irish pub in Cleveland by his single mom and all the bar's eclectic patrons. Rory tells his hilarious coming of age story using classic Irish pub songs from The Wolftones, U2, Van Morrison and more with music direction from Tony and Grammy Award winner, Stephen Oremus.
Rory is a Co-Founder of Broadway Impact, an organization that mobilizes the theater community to take action on fighting for marriage equality. Along with Jenny Kanelos and Gavin Creel, Rory was there from it's inception and has organized large rallies, phone banks, and theater events; all for the sake of marriage equality. Currently Broadway Impact is producing the play 8, conceived by Rory and edited by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. 8 uses the original transcript of the trial that overturned Prop 8 in California and puts it on a stage for theaters all across the country to perform and hold talkbacks. Rory has had the pleasure of performing around the country in the piece with many great actors and activists including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Larry Kramer, Cleve Jones and many more. Currently 8 has been produced in over 400 theaters, including in all 50 states and in 7 countries.
Rory lives in Los Angeles with his husband Gerold Schroeder. He is very happy:)
He is a political activist and is the visionary behind #BeltTheVote , To learn more go to Beltthevote.org
Little Known Fact: Because singer and superstar, Josh Groban, got a record deal, Rory got his spot in the musical theater program at Carnegie Mellon... And the rest is musical theater history.
EPISODE 109- JASON ALEXANDER
Though best known for his award-winning, nine year stint as the now iconic George Costanza of television’s Seinfeld, Jason Alexander has achieved international recognition for a career noted for its extraordinary diversity. Aside from his performances on stage, screen and television, he has worked extensively as a writer, composer, director, producer and teacher of acting. In between all that he has also become an award-winning magician, a notorious poker player and a respected advocate on social and political issues.
For his depiction of “George” on Seinfeld, Jason garnered six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award and two American Comedy Awards. He won two Screen Actor Guild Awards as the best actor in a television comedy despite playing a supporting role and in 2012 he was honored to receive the “Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement” from the Actor's Fund.
Aside from Seinfeld, Jason has starred and guested in shows as The Grinder, Drunk History, Friends, Two and a Half Men, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Criminal Minds, Monk, Franklin and Bash, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bob Patterson, Listen Up, Hit the Road, Orville and Young Sheldon. He also starred in the television films of Bye Bye Birdie, Cinderella, A Christmas Carol and The Man Who Saved Xmas. Additionally, his voice has been heard most notably in Duckman, The Cleveland Show, American Dad, Tom and Jerry and Kody Kapow.
His many films include: Pretty Woman, Jacob’s Ladder, Love Valor Compassion, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dunston Checks In, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Shallow Hal. In addition he directed the feature films For Better or Worse and Just Looking. He is also a distinguished television director, overseeing episodes of Seinfeld, Til Death, Everybody Hates Chris, Mike and Molly, Criminal Minds and Franklin and Bash. He won the American Country Music Award for his direction of Brad Paisley's video “Cooler Online.”
While still in college, his desire to work as a stage actor in New York came to be with his debut in the original Broadway cast of the Hal Prince/Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. He continued starring on Broadway in the original casts of Kander and Ebb’s The Rink, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice and his Tony Award winning performance in Jerome Robbin’s Broadway. Jason also authored the libretto for that show which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical. After moving to LA, Jason continued working in the theater, notably serving as the artistic director for the Reprise Theatre Company and for the hit West Coast production of Mel Brook’s The Producers in which he starred along with Martin Short. Most recently, Jason returned to Broadway to star in the Larry David comedy Fish in the Dark at the Cort Theater and recently appeared in the John Patrick Shanley’s The Portuguese Kid at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
He has also helmed a number of stage productions including: The God of Hell at the Geffen Playhouse; Broadway Bound at the Odyssey; an updated revival of Damn Yankees and The Fantasticks, as well as Sunday in the Park with George for Reprise and most recently the world premiere of Windfall by Scooter Pietsch for the Arkansas Repertory Theater.
Mr. Alexander tours the country and the world performing his one-man show, “As Long As You’re Asking, a Conversation with Jason Alexander,” which contains music, comedy and conversation. He can also be seen in his whimsical salute to Broadway musicals with some of the finest symphony orchestras throughout the United States. You can stay in touch with Jason via Twitter (@IJasonAlexander)
EPISODE 108- JENN COLELLA
Jenn Colella stars on Broadway in Come From Away ( Tony nomination.) Previous Broadway credits include If/Then, Chaplin, High Fidelity and Urban Cowboy(Outer Critics Circle Award nomination) and off-Broadway in Beebo Brinker, Lucky Guy, Slut and Closer Than Ever. Her regional work includes Annie Get Your Gun (PCLO); Peter Pan (Sacramento Music Circus); Side Show (Kennedy Center). She's been seen on screen in Feed The Beast, Elementary, All My Children, The Good Wife and Rescue Me.
She will star this fall on the television series The Code.
EPISODE 97 - JESSE TYLER FERGUSON
Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Broadway: On the Town, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Drama Desk Award), Fully Committed(Drama Desk Award). Off-Broadway: Log Cabin (Playwrights Horizons), Newyorkers (MTC), Little Fish(Second Stage), Where Do We Live (Vineyard Theater). Public Theater / Shakespeare in the Park: On the Town, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest. The Hollywood Bowl: The Producers, Spamalot, Sondheim on Sondheim. TV: “Modern Family” (5 Emmy nominations, 4 SAG Awards), “The Class,” “Ugly Betty,” “Web Therapy,” “Night Cap.” Co-Founder of TieTheKnot.org, raising funds to protect LGBTQ Equality.
Little Known Fact: Jesse was the very first actor to be cast on the ABC hit sitcom, Modern Family!