The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly called Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a book or through-storyline may be represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). The AEA works to negotiate quality living conditions, livable wages, and benefits for performers and stage managers. A theater or production that is not produced and performed by AEA members may be called "non-Equity".
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a character actor before establishing himself in leading roles in film and television. He has received numerous accolades including two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, along with a nomination for an Academy Award.
F. Murray Abraham is an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he came to prominence for his acclaimed leading role as Antonio Salieri in the drama film Amadeus (1984) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama as well as a BAFTA Award nomination.
Edith Falco is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), and Nurse Jackie Peyton on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–2015). She also portrayed Diane Whittlesey in HBO's prison drama Oz (1997–2000).
John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied complex roles in independent films. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merged with the Radio and Television Directors Guild in 1960 to become the modern Directors Guild of America.
Matthew Avery Modine is an American actor. He rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Other films include Birdy (1984), Vision Quest (1985), Married to the Mob (1988), Gross Anatomy (1989), Pacific Heights (1990), Short Cuts (1993), Cutthroat Island (1995), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Oppenheimer (2023). On television, he portrayed Dr. Don Francis in the HBO film And the Band Played On (1993), the oversexed Sullivan Groff on Weeds (2007), Ivan Turing in Proof (2015), and Dr. Martin Brenner in Netflix's Stranger Things (2016–2022).
Christopher Walton Cooper is an American actor. He has appeared in several major Hollywood films, including American Beauty (1999), October Sky (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Seabiscuit (2003), Capote (2005), Syriana (2005), The Kingdom (2007), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), The Town (2010), The Muppets (2011), Cars 3 (2017), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), and Little Women (2019). He also portrayed Sheriff July Johnson in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), which became one of the most successful Westerns in history.
John Marcum Wells is an American theater, film, and television producer, writer, and director. He is best known for his role as showrunner and executive producer of the television series ER, Third Watch, The West Wing, Southland, Shameless, Animal Kingdom, and American Woman. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. Wells is also a labor leader, having served as president of the Writers Guild of America, West from 1999 to 2001 and from 2009 to 2011. Wells serves on the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) Board of Governors. In 2011, he developed the series Shameless on Showtime, which ran for eleven seasons ending in 2021.
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a student theatrical society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque crossdressing musicals. The Hasty Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the United States and the third oldest in the world, behind only the Comédie-Française and the Oberammergau Passion Play. The Hasty Pudding Theatricals was described by John Wheelwright in 1897 as a "kindly association of men of all ages in a gay evening of simple enjoyment." It is a comedy show.
The Associated Actors and Artistes of America (4As), established in 1919, is the federation of trade unions for performing artists in the United States.
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 members.
James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series The Sopranos (1999–2007). For this role, he won three Emmy Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Golden Globe Award. His role as Tony Soprano has been described as one of the greatest and most influential performances in television history.
The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.
Carson Ferri-Grant is an American actor and artist. Grant has created characters and stories in visual mediums as drawings, paintings, in films and on stage.
Ronald "Ron" de Moraes is an American television director and producer. He has worked on numerous commercials, shows and concerts, and received an Emmy Award for co-directing the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremony and a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the 2007 Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade.
Bert V. Royal Jr. is an American screenwriter, playwright, and former casting director. He is best known as the writer of the play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2005, and the 2010 teen film Easy A.
The Casting Guild of Australia (CGA) is a professional society, founded in 2013 in Victoria, Australia. It consists over 90% of all Australian casting directors for film, television, and theatre.
