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David Wayne "D. W." Brown (born June 30, 1961) is the co-owner and head instructor at the Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio in Santa Monica, California. He has acted in, directed, produced and written films. He also has acted on television. In theater, he has worked as an actor and a director.
D.W. Brown first acted at the age of 15, in his hometown theater company in Tucson, Arizona, starring in "Desire Under The Elms". He moved to Los Angeles and first appeared as an actor on television as well as film in 1982, in The Facts of Life and Fast Times at Ridgemont High , respectively. He began to write and direct movies in 1996.
He worked with The Ensemble Studio Theater, developing plays for production and directing his own works as well as those of others. [1] He directed "Fleas" and "Porno Stars At Home," which won awards for both of its leading ladies.
He has written and directed short films including "One Clean Move," starring Harry Hamlin and Gary Busey, which was honored at The Taos Film Festival and purchased by The Sundance Channel, and "The Need For Flowers" that received a "Best Actor" nomination at The Method Fest Film Festival. [1] He co-produced and co-wrote the film "Perfume" (a Sundance Festival selection).
Brown discovered a profound appreciation of the Meisner Technique after extensive training and subsequently became an instructor. He has trained actors, writers, and directors for the past 20 years at The Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studio, of which he is co-owner with his wife of nearly 20 years, Joanne Baron. His former students include Leslie Mann [2] and Robin Wright. [3]
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, racing driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling from a screenplay by Cameron Crowe, based on his 1981 book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, and starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, and Ray Walston. Crowe went undercover at Clairemont High School in San Diego and wrote about his experiences.
Leslie Jean Mann is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including The Cable Guy (1996), George of the Jungle (1997), Big Daddy (1999), Knocked Up (2007), 17 Again (2009), Funny People (2009), This Is 40 (2012), Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), Blockers (2018), and Croods: A New Age (2020).
Timothy Busfield is an American actor and director. He has played Elliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething; Mark, the brother-in-law of Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams; and Danny Concannon on the television series The West Wing. In 1991 he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for thirtysomething. He is also the founder of the 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization Theatre for Children, Inc. In 2024 he was inducted into the Sacramento Baseball Hall of Fame as a pitcher.
Todd Graff is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for writing and directing the musical comedy films Camp (2003), for which he was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Bandslam (2009), and Joyful Noise (2012). Graff is also known for his supporting roles in the science fiction films The Abyss (1989) and Strange Days (1995), as well as the black comedy crime film Death to Smoochy (2002).
Scott Turner Schofield is an American actor, writer, producer, and speaker. He is a transgender activist, and uses he/him and they/them pronouns. He was the first out transgender actor in Daytime television, and the first out trans man to earn an Emmy nomination for acting.
Lyle Kessler is an American playwright, screenwriter and actor, best known internationally for his 1983 play Orphans.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival was held during January 15, 2009 until January 25 in Park City, Utah. It was the 25th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival.
Perfume is a 2001 American film directed by Michael Rymer, and featuring an ensemble cast, starring Paul Sorvino, Leslie Mann, Jeff Goldblum, Mariel Hemingway, Rita Wilson, Jared Harris, Joanne Baron and Michelle Williams. All dialogue was improvised by the actors. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
Justin Jitae Chon is an American actor and filmmaker. He has directed three films, Gook (2017), Ms. Purple (2019), and Blue Bayou (2021). He is also known for portraying Eric Yorkie in The Twilight Saga film series. He is a member of the K-pop parody group Boys Generally Asian.
Stephen Belber is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. His plays have been produced on Broadway and in over 50 countries. He directed the film adaptation of his Broadway play, Match, starring Patrick Stewart,. He also wrote and directed the film Management, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson and wrote the HBO film O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, Theothus Carter, and William Fichtner. Belber was an actor and associate writer on The Laramie Project,, as well as a co-writer of The Laramie Project, Ten Years Later.
Marianna Bronislawa Barbara Palka is a Scottish actress, producer, director, and writer. She is the writer, director and star of the film Good Dick, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Mary Gallagher is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, actress, director and teacher. For six years, she was artistic director of Gypsy, a theatre company in the Hudson Valley, New York, which collaborated with many artists to create site-specific mask-and-puppet music-theatre with texts and lyrics by Gallagher. These pieces included Premanjali and the 7 Geese Brothers, Ama and The Scottish Play. In 1996-97, she directed the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa, and she taught playwriting and screenwriting at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts from 2001 to 2010. She is a member of Actors & Writers, a theater company in the Hudson Valley, and the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, where she developed many of her plays and created and moderated the series, "You Can Make a Life: Conversations with Playwrights" from 1994 to 2001.
Fred Melamed is an American actor, comedian and writer. After spending most of his early career primarily as a renowned voice over artist, and occasionally playing small roles in films,, he established himself as a revered character actor, with his role as Sy Ableman in the Coen Brothers' 2010 Best Picture-nominated, A Serious Man (2009). Other notable film credits have included In a World... (2012), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Shiva Baby (2020), Lying and Stealing (2019), and Suspect (1987).
Josh Fox is an American film director, playwright and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning 2010 documentary, Gasland. He is the founder and artistic director of a film and theater company in New York City, International WOW, and has contributed as a journalist to Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, NowThis, AJ+ and Huffington Post.
Joanne Baron is an American actress and Meisner technique acting coach. She was raised in Providence, Rhode Island and attended Classical and Pawtucket High Schools. She received early acceptance to the University of Connecticut, then pursued Broadway opportunities and sang in Reno Sweeny's with Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's mother.
Kent Matthew Osborne is an American screenwriter, actor, animator, producer, and director. He has worked for such animated television shows as SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Phineas and Ferb, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time, Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball, he has received multiple Emmy Award nominations and has won twice for Adventure Time. He is currently the head writer for the Cartoon Network animated series Summer Camp Island, which premiered in 2018, and is also co-producer and story editor for the Disney Channel animated series Kiff. He has also starred in several mumblecore films, including Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends, All the Light in the Sky and Uncle Kent. His brother is the director Mark Osborne. Osborne had replaced Walt Dohrn as a storyboard director and writer after Dohrn left SpongeBob to work on more DreamWorks films in 2002.
Jordan Harrison is an American playwright. He grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. His play Marjorie Prime was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, and Melissa Benoist. It focuses on an ambitious music student and aspiring jazz drummer (Teller), who is pushed to his limit by his abusive instructor (Simmons) at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory in New York City.
Madeleine Olnek is an American independent film director, producer, screenwriter, and playwright. She has written 24 plays and three feature films, including Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, The Foxy Merkins, and Wild Nights with Emily. Her feature films have been described as "madcap comedies with absurdist leanings" and are all centered around queer characters.