2011 TCG National Conference - Honorary Committee
Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander is an actor, writer, comedian, television director and producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998.
He has had an active career on the stage, appearing in several Broadway musicals including Jerome Robbins' Broadway in 1989, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He appeared in the Los Angeles production of The Producers with Martin Short.
Alexander is the Artistic Director of Reprise Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he has directed several musicals.
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury has published more than 600 short stories over a period of 60 years. He has written short stories, novels, screenplays, plays, and poetry. His best known books are The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and in its 50th anniversary year, Fahrenheit 451. He wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick for John Huston in 1953. In 2005 a film was released, based on his short story, A Sound of Thunder.
He has published several new books in the past several years, including From the Dust Returned, One More For The Road, Let’s All Kill Constance, The Cat’s Pajamas, and a book of essays, Bradbury Speaks, as well as a huge volume of short stories, Bradbury Stories. A novel, Farewell Summer, which is the sequel to Bradbury’s classic Dandelion Wine, was published in October of 2006. In September of 2007 his book Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band is Playing and Leviathan ’99 was released. In February 2009 another collection of short stories, We’ll Always Have Paris, was published. In 2001 The National Book Award was given to Bradbury for his contribution to American literature and in 2004 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bush and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2007 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation and later in the year the French Ambassador to the United States awarded Bradbury a medal naming him a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. This award, given by the French Minister of Culture, is France's highest cultural award.
His contributions to architecture include creating the American Experience at the United States Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, creating the metaphors within Spaceship Earth at Disney’s Epcot in Florida, and providing the blueprint for the Glendale Galleria in California.
Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges has appeared in over 60 feature films, including The Other Side of the Mountain, Norma Rae, Heart Like a Wheel, Sordid Lives, Max Payne, and The Fabulous Baker Boys, opposite his brother Jeff for which Beau received the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Society of Film Critics.
In television, Bridges has received 13 Emmy nominations and won three, along with two Golden Globes, for Without Warning: The James Brady Story, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, and The Second Civil War. His recent guest star roles on My Name Is Earl, Desperate Housewives, and The Closer have all garnered Emmy nominations.
On the stage, Bridges performed in the original productions of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Father Daniel Berrigan at the Mark Taper Forum, on Broadway in William Inge’s Where’s Daddy? and Peter Ustinov’s Who’s Who in Hell, and Looking for Normal by Jane Anderson at the Geffen Playhouse. Bridges recently appeared with his daughter Emily in Acting: The First Six Lessons, a play they co-authored that will soon be published by Samuel French.
He won a 2009 Grammy for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in the category of Best Spoken Word Album. He is currently playing Sally Field’s boyfriend in the TV series Brothers & Sisters and will soon be seen in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants with George Clooney.
Bridges serves on the Board of the Wishtoyo Foundation, which protects the culture and history of coastal communities and fosters responsibility to our marine habitats through education, community action, and citizen enforcement. He also works with Plan USA, an organization that provides support for struggling communities throughout the world by providing financial aid, education, and awareness.
John Cho
John Cho began taking roles in films and television programs in the early 1990s, eventually making his breakthrough in the 1999 comedy American Pie. From there, he took roles in other films, such as American Beauty, Bowfinger, Solaris, American Pie 1 and 2 and American Wedding. He also took his first regular television role, appearing as Vietnamese resturateur Chau Presley in the comedy series Off Centre.
Cho became more popular with his role in the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The success of his team-up with Kal Penn, who played his on-screen partner Kumar Patel, led to the release of a second film, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, in 2008. He also took on roles in the series Kitchen Confidential and Ugly Betty. Cho also played the role of Hikaru Sulu in the film Star Trek.
Gordon Davidson
Gordon Davidison is the Founding Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group. He led the Mark Taper Forum throughout its first 38 seasons, guiding over 300 productions to its stage and winning countless awards for himself and the theatre – including the Tony Award for theatrical excellence. The Taper was also distinguished by having two of its plays, The Kentucky Cycle and Angels in America, receive in consecutive years the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, the first time for plays produced outside of New York. In 1989 he also became Artistic Director of the Ahmanson Theatre and in 2004 of CTG’s newest space – the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
At the Taper he directed the world premieres of Chekhov in Yalta, The Hands of Its Enemy,
Tales From Hollywood, Nine Armenians, Like Jazz and the American premieres of Ghetto, The Talking Cure and Stuff Happens. He also directed at the Taper and transferred to New York the American premieres of Savages and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the world premieres of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Children of a Lesser God, QED, The Lady and the Clarinet, Unfinished Stories, Murderous Angels, and The Shadow Box for which he received a Tony award for his direction.
In Los Angeles his directing credits also include The Devils and Terra Nova at the Taper,
The Real Thing and A Little Night Music at the Doolittle Theatre, and The Deputy and
Candide for The Theatre Group at UCLA. For the opening of the Kirk Douglas Theatre, he directed the world premiere of A Perfect Wedding. Other directing credits include the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass which opened the Opera House of the Kennedy Center. Most recently he directed Jitney, one of the ten plays in the Kennedy Center’s 2008 Festival, August Wilson’s 20th Century.
Among his numerous New York producing credits are Zoot Suit, Division Street, Story Theatre, and the last play of August Wilson’s ten-play cycle, Radio Golf.
His many honors and awards include the Mr. Abbott Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre and the Margo Jones Award for encouraging new plays and playwrights. He received the Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1990 for his contributions to the performing arts in California and was appointed to the National Council of the Arts by President Clinton. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and is past president of both the Theatre Communications Group and the League of Resident Theaters. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and served as a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He has honorary doctorates from Brooklyn College, California Institute of the Arts, and Claremont University Center.
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss is an Activist American Citizen. He is a spokesperson on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion, both speaking and writing to express his sentiments in favor of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability. With an entertainment career spanning more than four decades, Academy Award-winning actor Dreyfuss has been one of America’s most versatile and individualistic actors.
As a community leader, his current focus and passion is to encourage, revive, elevate and enhance the teaching of civics in American Schools. He is the founder of the non-profit organization, The Dreyfuss Initiative (www.TheDreyfussInitiative.org), and is leading a nation wide effort to bring back civics to our American youth: "All people have a right to know who they are and why they are who they are. Clarity of thought and honesty in self-reflection are more than needed utilities - they are the building blocks of our national moral character." (From: Why I Love My Country).
Dreyfuss also serves on the committee for Education with the American Bar Association, 12 years on the Board of the National Constitution Center, a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served as Senior Research Advisory Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford University.
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during her 50+ years as an actress. After 15 years of retirement she returned to film in 2005 with Monster in Law, followed by Georgia Rule two years later. She also produced and starred in over 20 exercise videos released between 1982 and 1995, and once again in 2010. Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1971, again playing a prostitute, the gamine Bree Daniels, in the murder mystery Klute. She won her second Oscar in 1978 for Coming Home.
Fonda has been an activist for many political causes. She describes herself as a liberal and a feminist. In 2005 Fonda worked alongside Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem to co-found the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content. Fonda currently serves on the board of the organization. She published an autobiography in 2005, entitled My Life So Far.
Ed Harris
Ed Harris is an actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show.
Harris landed his first leading role in George A. Romero's film Knightriders (1981). Two years later, he got his first taste of critical acclaim, playing astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff. Also that year, he made his New York stage debut in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, a performance that earned him an Obie for Outstanding Actor. In 2000, he made his debut as a director in the Oscar-winning film Pollock. Along with theatrical films, he has starred in television adaptations of Riders of the Purple Sage and Empire Falls.
Harris has directed a number of theater productions and has had an active stage acting career. Most notably, he starred in the production of Neil LaBute's one-man play Wrecks at the Public Theater in New York City and later at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles. For the LA production, he won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award. Wrecks premiered at the Everyman Theater in Cork, Ireland and then in the US at the Public Theater in New York.
Harris and wife Amy Madigan starred together in Ash Adams' indie crime drama Once Fallen, alongside Brian Presley, Sharon Gless, Adams himself, and a large all-star cast. It was released in 2010.
Neil Patrick Harris
Equally successful on stage and screen, Neil Patrick Harris currently stars as Barney Stinson in the hit CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother, a role which has garnered him multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations, as well as a People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor. Harris won his first two Emmy Awards for his guest-starring role on Glee, in addition to his role as host of the 63rd Annual Tony Awards, a role he will once again assume when he hosts the upcoming 65th Annual Tony Awards. From his film debut opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Clara's Heart and his seminal role as the beloved title character in Doogie Howser, M.D., to his turns in the Harold & Kumar films and Joss Whedon's online sensation, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Harris has enjoyed a successful career spanning more than 20 years in the industry.
A veteran of the theater, Harris recently tackled the leading role of Bobby in the New York Philharmonic’s staged production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Lincoln Center. The all-star production, co-starring Patti LuPone, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks, and Martha Plimpton, among others, was filmed for an upcoming theatrical release in movie theaters across the country. Harris has starred in three Broadway productions, including the dual roles of The Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald in the Tony Award-winning musical, Assassins. He made his Broadway debut as Anne Heche’s unexpected suitor in the Pulitzer Prize-winning production of Proof, and later starred as the exuberant emcee in Cabaret at Studio 54. His additional theatrical credits include roles in the Geffen Playhouse production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, tick, tick…BOOM! at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, Romeo & Juliet at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, the concert production of Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center in New York, and the Los Angeles production of Rent, which garnered him a Drama Desk Award. Utilizing his theatrical expertise behind the curtain and furthering his association with the Pulitzer Prize-winning production, Harris made his musical directorial debut with the Hollywood Bowl's recent staging of Jonathan Larson's Rent, starring Nicole Scherzinger, Vanessa Hudgens, and Wayne Brady.
In July 2007, Harris made his theatrical directing debut with the original comedic script, I Am Grock, at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, and he later mixed his love of magic and theatre in directing The Expert at the Card Table at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. On the big screen, Harris will soon be seen starring in three upcoming feature films – the independent comedy, The Best & The Brightest; the upcoming live-action/animated feature, The Smurfs; and the third installment in the Harold and Kumar film series, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas.
Allison Janney
Allison Janney is an award-winning actress who has earned a solid reputation in stage productions and in many supporting roles on screen. She more recently has become prominent by portraying one of the major characters in the popular TV series The West Wing, where she played the President's press secretary who eventually gets promoted to the White House Chief of Staff. Her impressive work during the seven seasons of the series earned her four Emmys and two SAG Awards. Janney took substantive roles in feature films, in the acclaimed The Hours, where she was Meryl Streep's lover, and in How to Deal, where she played Mandy Moore's mother.
Among her stage work, Janney has played in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge on Broadway opposite Anthony LaPaglia, which earned her a Tony Award nomination, and a Drama League Award for outstanding artist for the 1997-98 season. She played in Noel Coward's Present Laughter opposite Frank Langella, which earned her the Outer Critics Circle Award and an Actors' Equity award. Janney also appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of The Taming of the Shrew.
Jane Kaczmarek
Jane Kaczmarek starred for seven years in the Emmy Award winning TV series Malcolm in the Middle. She was nominated for seven consecutive Emmy awards, as well as numerous Golden Globe, and SAG awards and has won the American Comedy Award and the Television Critic’s Award for two consecutive years, the first woman to ever receive such an honor.
Kaczmarek was most recently seen in FX’s Wilfred, and in the Lifetime Network Original Movie Reviving Ophelia. She starred in the TNT drama series Raising the Bar as Judge Trudy Kessler. Raising the Bar’s pilot episode premiered as the highest rated cable television debut in basic cable history. Kaczmarek’s other television appearances include Felicity, Equal Justice, Paper Chase: the Second Year, Party of Five, Frasier, The Practice, St. Elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues.
In New York, Kaczmarek appeared on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and in plays at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Second Stage, Long Wharf, New York Stage and Film, and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals. In Los Angeles, she appeared in Kindertransport for which she received an Ovation Award. She starred in the premiere of the Pulitzer Prize winning Dinner With Friends at South Coast Repertory where she also appeared in Raised in Captivity for which she won the LA Drama Critics Award. She is a member of the Antaeus Company where she appeared in Autumn Garden. At the Geffen Theatre, she recently starred in In Mother Words and performed Awake and Sing and Death of a Salesman for LA Theatre Works.
She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and The Yale School of Drama, and is the founder of the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation which auctions celebrity award show finery to benefit children’s charities. She is the mother of three children: Frances, George and Mary Louisa.
Alec Mapa
Alec Mapa is an actor, comedian and writer. He got his first professional break when he was cast to replace B.D. Wong in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly. On television, he has made guest appearances on a wide variety of programs, including Jamie Foxx Show, Roseanne, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, Friends, Murder One and Dharma & Greg. He co-starred with Jason Bateman in the 2001 comedy Some of My Best Friends. He played Adam Benet in the UPN comedy Half & Half.
He wrote and performed in a one-man play titled I Remember Mapa, about his experiences growing up gay in San Francisco. Mapa was a featured performer on the Logo original stand-up comedy series Wisecrack. He recently appeared on the ABC series Desperate Housewives. He currently plays recurring roles in Ugly Betty, as Suzuki St. Pierre, and the animated series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World.
Mapa's film credits include parts in Bright Lights, Big City, Playing by Heart, and Connie and Carla, among others. He was featured in the movies Super Sweet 16: The Movie and Tru Loved. He also played as a stylist in the movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan. His latest film appearance was on the movie Marley and Me. In 2010, Mapa became one of the co-hosts of Logo's The Gossip Queens, a daily series where he helps present celebrity gossip.
Gates McFadden
Gates McFadden is an actress, director/choreographer, and teacher. She has been Artistic Director of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA since January 2009. During her tenure she spearheaded the building of the Atwater Village Theatre Collective (AVT), a new three-theater space in Los Angeles. She chose Circle X Theatre Co. to partner with EST/LA and this year, in AVT’s debut season, the companies produced five new plays and three original productions. Plays produced under her tenure as AD at EST/LA include Julie Hebert’s award-winning Tree, Nicholas Kazan’s Mlle. God, Tom Jacobson’s House of the Rising Son, Sofia Alvarez’s Between Us Chickens, and the late night show Crack Whore Galore. Acting credits include six years and four films at Paramount Studios portraying Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her numerous New York theater credits include Tommy Tune’s production of Cloud Nine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Delacorte), How to Say Goodbye, (Vineyard Theater), Emerald City,(NYTW), The Homecoming, (JRT) and EST’s Circle in the Square production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.
Among her Los Angeles theatre credits are LATC’s production of Viva Detroit and EST-LA’s The Shore. On television, she portrayed a leading role in the Paramount series “Marker” and a recurring role on CBS’ Mad About You, as well as numerous guest roles in other shows. McFadden was Director of Choreography and Puppet Movement for the films Labryinth and Dreamchild under Jim Henson. She was Choreographer in Residence for the BAM Theater Company under RSC member David Jones. Directing credits range from EST/LA’s Crack Whore Galore to Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, to the ST:TNG episode, Genesis for Paramount Studios. A well-known teacher of the techniques of Jacques LeCoq, her faculty positions have included AADA, Brandeis, Harvard, Perdue, Temple, The Stella Academy in Hamburg, and the University of Pittsburgh. McFadden was awarded the George Burns Teaching Fellowship at USC where she continues to teach today.
Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf is an original member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater. Her first NY appearance was in Balm in Gilead by Lanford Wilson for which she received Obie, Drama Desk and Theatre World awards. Recently, she appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and opposite Nathan Lane in November directed by Joe Mantello. She received an Obie Award last year for her role in Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind directed by Ethan Hawke. She received LA Ovation Awards for appearances at the Geffen Theater for The Quality of Life and Looking for Normal (both by Jane Anderson) and for All My Sons by Arthur Miller.
She won three Emmy Awards for her role as Jackie Harris on Roseanne. Film credits include Internal Affairs, JFK, Desperately Seeking Susan, Scream 2, Leaving Las Vegas, Uncle Buck and Toy Story.
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina is a British-born, naturalized American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears. He is well known for his roles in Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Spider-Man 2, Maverick, Species, Not Without My Daughter, Chocolat, Frida, Steamboy, The Hoax, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Da Vinci Code, Little Traitor, An Education and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Molina is currently starring as Detective Ricardo Morales on the NBC police/courtroom drama Law & Order: Los Angeles. Alfred Molina’s stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana," David Mamet's "Speed the Plow", and Yasmina Reza's "Art" (his Broadway debut), for which he received a Tony Award nomination in 1998. Molina was also nominated in 2010 for a Tony Award for his role in Red.
Chris Pine
Chris Pine is an actor born in Los Angeles, California. Pine’s first acting role was in a 2003 episode of ER. The same year, he also appeared in episodes of The Guardian and CSI: Miami. In 2004, he appeared in Why Germany?, a short film, and in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. In 2005, Pine appeared in an episode of the series Six Feet Under, as well as in Confession, an independent film, and The Bulls, another short film.
Pine appeared in the made-for-television film, Surrender Dorothy, which aired in early 2006. He also played Jake Hardin in the American film Just My Luck, a romantic comedy in which he stars opposite Lindsay Lohan. Pine appears in the comedy, Blind Dating and in the action film Smokin’ Aces. In 2007, Pine played the part of James T. Kirk in Star Trek, directed by J. J. Abrams.
Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad is an American Tony Award winning actress and singer, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.
In 2004, Rashad became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. She resumed the role in the 2008 television adaption of A Raisin in the Sun, which earned her the 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. Rashad was nominated for the 2005 Tony Award for Actress in a Drama for Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson.
She also received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009.
Tim Robbins
Born in West Covina, California, but raised in New York City, Tim Robbins is an actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon. He is known for his roles as Nuke in Bull Durham, Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, and as Dave Boyle in Mystic River, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1981, Robbins formed the Actors' Gang theater group, an experimental ensemble that expressed radical political observations through the European avant-garde form of theater.
James Roday
James Roday is an actor, writer and director, who started his career in NY theatre. A founding member of the Red Dog Squadron theatre company, Roday starred in their acclaimed production of Extinction which transferred from LA to NY's off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre and most recently directed their latest play Greedy by Karl Gajdusek.
Roday, along with writing partners Todd DeMonaco and Todd Harthan, wrote the screenplay for Skinwalkers distributed by Lions Gate Films. Roday has been seen in many feature films including The Dukes of Hazzard and Rolling Kansas, and is currently a producer, as well as the star of the highly acclaimed USA series Psych where he has written and directed several episodes over the past five year run. The 2009 episode High Top Fade Out written by Roday and Saladin Patterson received an NAACP writer’s nomination.
In addition, Roday wrote and is currently in pre-production for the feature film Gravy, in which he will also star and direct in 2011.
Herbert Siguenza
Herbert Siguenza is a founding member of Culture Clash. Along with Richard Montoya and RicSalinas, Culture Clash is the most produced Latino theatre company in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1984, Culture Clash has stormed the stages of America’s top regional theatre’s including the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, The Arena Stage, The Alley Theatre, The Berkeley Repertory, Yale Repertory, Syracuse Stage, The Huttington Stage and countless universities and colleges.
Siguenza has co-written, and or performed in American Night, Palestine New Mexico, Peace, Water and Power, Chavez Ravine, Zorro in Hell!, Radio Mambo, A Bowl of Beings, The Mission and others. As a solo writer and performer Siguenza has produced Cantinflas! and A Weekend with Pablo Picasso currently on national tour. Siguenza is also an accomplished visual artist and sits on the Mayoy appointed El Pueblo Historical Authority Commission of Los Angeles.
Noah Wyle
Born in Los Angeles, Noah Wyle is an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor, best known for his 12 seasons on the NBC Drama ER, as Dr. John Carter. Some of his other film and television credits include A Few Good Men, Enough, White Oleander, Donnie Darko, and he can be seen this summer in the new TNT Dramatic series Falling Skies, produced by Steven Spielberg. Twenty years ago, Wyle helped create The Blank Theatre Company and is currently serves as the artistic producer. The Blank, which is based in the 2nd Stage Theater in Hollywood, has received numerous awards and critical acclaim, bringing exclusively original material or west coast premiers to Los Angeles.
In addition to its main stage season The Blank dedicates itself to new play development through two longstanding programs, The Living Room Series, a Monday Night reading series, developed 36 new plays a year. The Young Playwrights Festival, which over 20 years has produced over 200 plays by teenage playwrights. Wyle splits his time between Los Angeles and Santa Ynez CA, with his two children Owen and Auden.