Shira Piven | |
|---|---|
 Piven in May 2015 | |
| Born | October 8, 1961 |
| Alma mater | Bennington College |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Joyce Hiller Piven (mother) Byrne Piven (father) |
| Relatives | Jeremy Piven (brother) |
Shira Piven (born October 8, 1961) is an American director, actress, and producer. She directed the 2014 film Welcome to Me . [1] [2]
Piven was raised in Evanston, Illinois, a city just north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. [3] [4] Her parents, Joyce Piven and Byrne Piven, founded the Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston. [5] [6] Piven performed with the theater company during her adolescence and started teaching and directing theater in her 20s. [6] [7] She studied drama and music at Bennington College, and graduated in 1983. [5] Piven grew up in a Jewish family [8]
Piven has directed more than 20 plays in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., including Fully Loaded in 2006, [9] actor Patrick McCartney's one person show Sinister Kid in 2013, [10] and Victims of Duty in 2018. [11] [3] [12] In 1999, she founded the Water Theater Company in New York, [3] [13] and led the improv theater group Burn Manhattan. [14]
Piven directed her first feature film, Fully Loaded in 2011, an adaptation of the stage play she co-wrote and directed, about two single mothers on a night out in Los Angeles. [15] [16] [6]
In 2014, her second feature, Welcome to Me , was co-produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay and stars Kristen Wiig as a woman with borderline personality disorder who wins the lottery and launches her own talk show. [3] [7]
Piven has also directed television episodes for Transparent, Claws, Divorce, Sweetbitter, and One Mississippi. [17] [18] [19]
Piven married writer and director Adam McKay in 1999. [20] [21] She and McKay reside in Los Angeles with their daughters Lili Rose and Pearl. [7] [4] Her younger brother is actor Jeremy Piven. [6]
Piven has taught theater to prison inmates and gang members. [3] [5] [11] Piven and McKay both serve as board members of Jail Guitar Doors USA, a non-profit founded by Wayne Kramer that provides musical instruments to inmates. [22]
| Title | Release date | Studio | Budget | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome to Me | May 1, 2015 | Bron Studios Gary Sanchez Productions | $625,727 | 72% | |
| Fully Loaded | 2011 | Figment Films | |||
| Sweetbitter , season 1, episode 4 ("Simone's") | May 27, 2018 | Sleeping Indian Inc. Plan B Entertainment | |||
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its current location on Melrose Avenue.
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Kristen Carroll Wiig is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved nationwide stardom during her seven-season tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012.
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Joyce Hiller Piven is an American director, teacher, and actress. She and her late husband, Byrne Piven, were actors in the Compass Players. Later, they founded the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois and became teachers to a generation of stars such as John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Aidan Quinn, Adam McKay, as well as their son Jeremy Piven and daughter Shira Piven.
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Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a 2021 American comedy film directed by Josh Greenbaum, from a screenplay by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who also star. Originally scheduled for a 2020 theatrical release, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was pushed back and released in the United States by Lionsgate via VOD on February 12, 2021. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
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