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Arts, Culture, & Lifestyle
1900-1969 | 1970-1979 | 1980-1989 | 1990-1999 | 2000-2009
2000-2009
A special Academy Award for achievements in motion picture special effects went to Jonathan Cohen ’00. (Inside Science News, 2/6/08)
Maine’s first French Film Festival was established through the work of Katharine Harrington ’00 AM, ’05 PhD. (Bangor Daily News, 2/15/06)
Singer-songwriter Erin McKeown ’00 talked about finding inspiration. (San Jose Mercury News, 5/8/08)
Doug NeJaime ’00 and his partner have created a handbag label called Tucker Paisley. (Boston Globe, 12/7/06)
Nelson Walker ’00 and Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt ’02 won a Student Academy Award for the documentary Lumo. (Alternative Film Guide, 5/23/07)
Emily Ziff ’00 and her business partner, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, signed a deal allowing Overtune Studios a first look at projects by their production company, Cooper’s Town Productions. (UPI.com, 6/28/08)
Colbert Report regular Jordan Carlos ’01 was rumored to be in the running to take over the role of Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live. (The Daily Beast, 11/21/08)
Bomb It, a documentary produced by Kate Christensen ’01, premiered in several international film festivals and was reviewed in Variety. (Variety, 2/25/08)
Noah Gelb ’01 was nominated for a Grammy for the production of Death Cab For Cutie’s Directions. (Variety, 12/7/06)
While writing for Law & Order: SVU, Paul Grellong ’01 still works on his plays, including Radio Free Emerson, which premiered in Pawtucket. (Boston Globe, 6/8/07)
Dhani Harrison ’01 discussed his father, his new album and his new video game. (Musicradar.com, 5/26/09)
Lam Ho ’01 spoke on defiance and the myth of the “model minority” during Southeast Asian Heritage Week. (Brown Daily Herald, 11/6/07)
Leatherheads star John Krasinski ’01 talked to the New York Times about directing an adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, a project he conceived while at Brown. Krasinski of NBC’s The Office also starred alongside Robin Williams in the comedy License to Wed. In 2006, Krasinski was named one of People Magazine’s "Sexiest Men Alive". (NYTimes.com, 3/30/08; Business Wire, 5/23/06; People Magazine, 11/15/06)
Benjamin Percy ’01 won the $10,000 Plimpton Prize for the best work of fiction published in The Paris Review, for his story Refresh, Refresh. Percy was also featured in Poets & Writers magazine. (The Elegant Variation, 3/28/07; Poets & Writers magazine, Nov/Dec, 2007)
Ben Lerner ’01, ’03 MFA was named a 2006 National Book Award finalist for his second book of poetry, Angle of Yaw. (Publishers Weekly, 10/11/2006)
Nate Albert ’02 was named VP of A&R at Universal Republic Records. (The Phoenix, 7/17/08)
Josh Asen ’02 and Jennifer Needleman ’02 released their first full-length film, I Love Hip Hop in Morocco. (Brown Daily Herald, 3/4/08)
Former Goldman Sachs trader Jihan Bowes-Little ’ 02 recorded his first rap album. (The Guardian, 3/30/09)
Mark Heyman ’02 co-produced the award-winning hit film The Wrestler. (santafenewmexican.com, 1/24/09)
The debut novel by Reif Larsen ’02 about a whimsical child who likes maps had top publishers clamoring for the rights. (The New York Observer, 6/24/08)
Sandeep Parikh ’02, writer and director for Comedy Central’s The Legend of Neil, got his start as a “humor TA” in a computer programming class at Brown. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/4/09)
Playwright Jordan Harrison ’03 MFA and Brown professor Tara Nummedal received 2009 Guggenheim fellowships. (Today at Brown, 4/9/09)
The New York Times profiled Gabriel Kahane ’03, praising his versatile debut album. (New York Times, 4/24/09)
Cocalero, the first documentary by Alejandro Landes ’03, follows Bolivian President Evo Morales’s populist campaign. (indieWIRE, 1/3/07)
Yaya DaCosta ’04 was profiled as a “Fresh Face” by Broadway Buzz. (Broadway.com, 9/10/08)
Louella Hill ’04 was featured on The Sundance Channel for her efforts to connect people to local foods. She also is making some of Rhode Island’s first artisan cheeses. (Sundance Channel, 11/27/08; Brown Daily Herald, 12/05/07)
Quiara Alegria Hudes ’04 MFA was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama. In the Heights, written by Hudes and produced by Jill Furman ’90, took home Best Musical at the Tony Awards. Hudes was also featured in the Village Voice. (Broadway.com, 4/20/09; Today at Brown, 6/16/08; Philly News, 3/12/08; Village Voice, 1/30/07)
Benjamin McGuire ’04 was profiled extensively in the New York Times about being young, gay, and married. (New York Times, 4/27/08)
Lidless, a play by Francis Ya-Chu Cowhig ’ 05, was chosen out of 650 submissions to win the Yale Drama Series for playwriting. (Broadway World, 3/16/09)
Lucy DeVito ’05 played the title role in Seattle’s Intiman Theatre’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank. (The Seattle Times, 3/25/08)
Fiasco Theater, an acting ensemble made up entirely of Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium MFA alumni, performed Cymbeline at New York’s Access Theater. (New York Times, 9/24/09)
Emily Miller ’05 and her band, the Sweetback Sisters, took second place in the “Talented Twenty-Somethings” contest on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion. (riDance.com, 4/21/07)
Kimberly Ovitz ’05 and her clothing line were featured in W Magazine. (W, March 2009)
Tommy Urban ’05’s unique combination of Army training and anthropology took him to Iraq to help collect evidence in the trial of Saddam Hussein. (WBZTV.com, 8/24/06)
Louis Abelman ’06 and Lynn True ’99 co-directed Lumo, the documentary that won Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt ’02 and Nelson Walker ’00 a Student Academy Award. (Alternative Film Guide, 5/23/07)
Dana Goldstein ’06 is a writing fellow for The American Prospect magazine. (The American Prospect, various)
Christine Montross ’06 MD, ’07 ScM wrote her book Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab while a medical student at Brown. (New York Times, 7/31/07)
Jed Resnick ’06 starred in national tour of Rent. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/6/06)
Liam D. Pierce ’08 is a gondolier in New York’s Central Park. (New York Times, 10/2/09)
Shya Scanlon ’08 MFA is syndicating his novel online across 42 different Web sites. (Los Angeles Times, 8/10/09)
1990-1999
Francesca Gregorini ’90 and Tatiana von Furstenberg ’91 returned to Rhode Island, the birthplace of their friendship, to shoot their film Tanner Hall. (Brown Daily Herald, 9/29/09)
Stephanie Ittleson ’90 is performing in and John Pleshette ’64 is directing the U.S. premiere of the play Mammals. (LA Times, 1/22/09)
From shunning mixed-fiber clothing to stoning adulterers, A.J. Jacobs ’90 spent a year attempting to follow every law in the Bible – and then wrote a book about it. (USAToday.com, 10/7/07)
In his book The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic, Steven Johnson ’90 draws parallels between cracking the epidemic and finding information online. (New York Times, 12/4/06)
Healing Pool by Brian Knep ’90, ’92 ScM was featured in the Milwaukee Art Museum. (VenturaCountyStar.com, 10/18/08)
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded a fellowship to writer Sam Lipsyte ’90.
Singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb ’90* has a children’s album,Camp Lisa. (Albuquerque Journal, 4/18/08)
Elizabeth Mitchell ’90 reinterprets folk and rock songs for children on her album, You Are My Little Bird. (NPR’s All Things Considered, 10/6/06)
David Rhode ’90, the New York Times reporter who escaped from Taliban kidnappers, is writing a five-part series about his experience. (New York Times, 10/17/09)
Jay Clarke ’91 AM, ’99 PhD was appointed Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs by the Clark Art Institute. (ArtDaily.com, April 2009)
The bestselling novel The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff ’91* will be made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron. (The Hollywood Reporter, 11/8/08)
Documentary filmmakers Rory Kennedy ’91 and Liz Garbus ’92 tell stories of ordinary people facing extraordinary political and social controversies. Garbus and Kennedy also contributed episodes to the HBO series The Addiction Project, which won the Governors Award at the 2007 Emmys. (Brown Alumni Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007; Variety, 8/6/07)
Dara Khosrowshahi ’91* talked to the New York Times about growing up in Iran, former employment, and moving to Seattle when he was appointed CEO of Expedia, the online travel company. (New York Times, 8/8/05)
Filmmaker Andrew Lauren ’91 was featured on the cover of Hampton Style. This is Not a Robbery, a documentary co-produced by Lauren, screened at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. (DansHamptons.com, 10/10/08; NY1 News, 6/23/08)
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded a fellowship to poet Reginald Shepherd ’91 MFA.
Evite co-founder Josh Silverman ’91 describes how he became president of Skype. (New York Times, 9/26/09)
Filming the show True Blood brought actor Sam Trammell ’91 back to the South for the first time since his childhood. (Nola.com, 6/27/09)
Film rights for Beat the Reaper by John Bazell ’92 were purchased by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company. (Variety, 1/7/09)
A novel by Daphne Beal ’92, In the Land of No Right Angles, was inspired by the year she spent in Nepal as a junior at Brown. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/21/08)
I Love You, Man, co-written and directed by John Hamburg ’92, was the opening night film at the South by Southwest 2009 Film Conference and Festival. (Austin Business Journal, 12/16/08)
Rock violinist Lili Haydn ’92 performed on Jay Leno and opened a Dodgers game. (AntiMusic.com, 3/18/08)
American Ballet Theatre was led out of the black by Rachel Moore ’92. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/17/06)
A new memoir by Glasgow Phillips ’92, The Royal Nonesuch, chronicles his last 10 years - since his move to Los Angeles with the insurance payout from a motorcycle crash. (Los Angeles Times, 3/13/07)
Tony-winner Duncan Sheik ’92 wrote the music for “Little Spirit: Christmas in New York,” which aired Dec. 10 on NBC. He has also composed the music, with Heather Cousens ’95 as the stage manager, for the Broadway production of Spring Awakening. Sheik also received 2007 Tony Awards for best score and orchestrations for the musical. (Islandpacket.com, 12/5/08; New York Times, 12/26/06; Bloomberg, 6/10/07)
2009 Sundance Film Festival selection Spring Breakdown, written and directed by Ryan Shiraki ’92, was released straight to DVD. (LA Times, 1/22/09)
Ayad Akhtar ’93 co-wrote the film The War Within about a terrorist plot against Grand Central Station. (South Florida Sun - Sentinel, 11/30/05)
Former attorney Warren Brown ’93 was the star of a Food Network show dedicated entirely to desserts. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/28/06)
Public radio host and L.A. Derby Doll Alex Cohen ’93 trained the Whip It cast for the roller derby film. (LA Times, 9/27/09)
Novelist Edwidge Danticat ’93 MFA won a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award.” (Miami Herald, 9/21/09)
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded a fellowship to filmmaker Rodney Evans ’93.
Daniel Alexander Jones ’93 AM has a play, Phoenix Fabrik, with a high-powered cast that includes theater legend Vinie Burrows and jazz singer Rhonda Ross. (The Star Tribune, 5/28/06)
Surgeon Calvin Lee ’93, ’97 MD performed at Carnegie Hall with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. (Brown Alumni Magazine, 4/15/09)
Joshua Marshall ’93 AM, ’03 PhD received a George Polk Award for his political blog, Talking Points Memo, which was featured in an article about the way blogs are reshaping journalism. Also mentioned in the article is Duncan Black ’94 AM, ’99 PhD who writes on the site Eschaton. (New York Times, 2/25/08; Los Angeles Times, 3/17/07)
The Junior Defenders, the 1997 film by Keith Spiegel ’93 was released direct-to-DVD. Narrated by John Waters, the low-budget indie features former “Brat Pack” actress Allie Sheedy and cameos from celebrities Michael Dukakis, Florence Henderson, Pauly Shore, Kevin Smith, Peter Tork, and more. (Boston Globe, 9/7/07)
Margaret Brown ’94 received a major emerging filmmakers grant from Women in Film. (MarketWire, 10/30/06)
At the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Robin Hessman ’94 received a grant for her documentary in progress. (Film Festival Today, 3/26/07)
Ted Keizer ’94 was featured in a documentary on the Outdoor Life Network for hiking in 50 states in under 100 days. (Brown Daily Herald, 1/31/06)
Aurorae Khoo ’94, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb ’97 and Timothy Barsky ’99 are among the six recipients of the 2006 Emerging California Playwright Awards. (Philanthropy News Digest, 1/28/07)
Tan Siok Siok ’94 discussed her documentary, Boomtown Beijing, about the Olympic city and its run-up to the games. (Audio) (The China Business Network, April 2008)
Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch ’95 is a novel about a former debutante who must adjust her dreams to the harsh reality of life. (Willamette Week, 4/9/08)
Accelerating America, an award-winning documentary directed by Timothy Hotchner ’95*, follows students of the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, started by Robert DeBlois ’82 AM. (The Providence Journal, 8/10/08)
Screenwriter Simon Kinberg ’95 was named one of the 50 most influential British players in Hollywood. Director Doug Liman ’88 discussed his career, his filmmaking style (labeled “Limania” by friend and screenwriter Kinberg) and more, in New York Magazine. (The Evening Standard, 01/16/07; New York Magazine, 1/13/08)
Dany Levy ’95 and her staff published Daily Candy A to Z: An Insider’s Guide to the Sweet Life. (Factio-magazine.com)
Anna Von Mertens ’95 showed her work at the University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach. (Artdaily.org, 01/17/2007)
Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has purchased the film rights to a historical fantasy book series by Naomi Novik ’95. (New York Times, 10/11/06)
The End As I Know It, a novel by Kevin Shay ’95, explores Y2K fears. (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/24/06)
Amy Sohn ’95 discusses life as a parent in Park Slope and her new novel Prospect Park West. (New York Times, 9/9/09)
Community MusicWorks, an arts-education group co-founded by Sebastian Ruth ’97 and Minna Choi ’96, was featured in the New Yorker’s fall education issue. (The New Yorker, 9/4/06)
Chitra Ganesh ’96 was one of 17 young artists with roots in Asia featured in a show at the Asia Society in New York. (Newsweek (International Edition), 10/02/06)
Mary Swerczek ’96, Peter Kovacs ’78 and Stephanie Grace ’87 are among those sharing a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (Pultizer Web site, 4/17/06; Brown Daily Herald, 7/17/06)
New York Magazine named Jonathan Van Gieson ’96 (“Jonny Porkpie”) and his wife Christina Nicosia ’98 (“Nasty Canasta”) as Best Burlesque in their “Best of New York 2007” issue. (New York Magazine, 3/12/07)
Peter DuBois ’97 AM is the artistic director of Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company. (Boston Globe, 12/23/07)
Gina Gionfriddo ’97 MFA was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama. (Broadway.com, 4/20/09)
Peter Nachtrieb ’97 won one of the country’s most prestigious playwriting awards for Hunter Gatherers. (Boston Globe, 7/22/07)
Masi Oka ’97 was also featured on the cover of Wired. Oka also stars in NBC’s hit drama “Heroes” and was profiled in the Brown Daily Herald. (Wired, April 2007; New York Times, 12/4/06; Brown Daily Herald, 9/18/06)
“In the Next Room (or the vibrator play).” by Sarah Ruhl ’97, ’01 MFA opened at the Berkeley Repertory Theater to positive reviews. Ruhl was deemed “one of the hottest playwrights going” in a profile of the MacArthur grant-winning author in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Ruhl was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship or so-called “genius” award. (New York Times, 2/18/09; Star Tribune, 10/18/07; The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 9/19/06)
A memoir by rabbi Danya Ruttenberg ’97, Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion, describes her circuitous route back to belief. (Forward, 9/10/08)
Contemporary Art Magazine featured award-winning documentary art photographer Taryn Simon ’97. Photography by Simon was on view at the Whitney museum in 2007. (Contemporary Art Magazine, April 2008; New York Times, 4/6/07)
Clare Burson ’98 received a Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. (Jewish Review, 3/1/07)
Chris Elam ’98 was showcased in Dance Magazine’s feature on dance and technology and interviewed by Business Week. The New York Times selected Throw People by Elam as one of the top ten dance productions in NYC for 2006. (Dance Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, Business Week, 2/23/07; New York Times, 12/24/06)
OK Go singer Damian Kulash ’98, a member of the Future of Music Coalitions Rock the Net campaign, testified on Capitol Hill in support of net neutrality. Kulash and his band OK Go earned a Grammy Award for their “Here it Goes Again” video in 2007. (Washington Times, 3/11/08; Brown Daily Herald, 2/13/07)
Ange Mlinko ’98 MFA won the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. (Poets & Writers, 4/14/09)
Benjamin Moser ’98 is receiving praise for his biography of a mysterious 20th-century Jewish novelist. (Vanity Fair, 8/18/09; Heronandcrane.com (Audio: 31 min.))
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded a fellowship to filmmaker Ben Russell ’98.
John Lloyd Young ’98 won a Tony for his performance as Frankie Valli in the hit Jersey Boys. (Brown Alumni Magazine, 6/12/06 and Nov/Dec 2006)
Kirstin Allio ’99 MFA, ’00 MAT was one of five young writers honored in the National Book Foundation’s annual “5 under 35.” (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 9/26/08)
Storyteller and “fluteboxer” Tim Barsky ’99 gives a 19th-century Jewish tale new life in 7 Beggars. (Inside Bay Area, 10/5/08)
Punching at the Sun by filmmaker Tanuj Chopra ’99 won Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. (Variety, 2/6/06)
Playwright Zayd Dohrn ’99 discusses growing up with radical parents, Beijing during the SARS epidemic, and more. (New York Times, 9/2/09)
Jane B. Spencer ’99 was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of journalists in the Hong Kong bureau of The Wall Street Journal. (Portland Press Herald, 6/3/07)
An online community launched by Merrill Stubbs ’99 and Amanda Hesser allows home cooks to showcase their talents and recipes. (Publishing Trends, September 2009)
1980-1989
Jody Adams ’80 was profiled recently among Ivy League graduates who are professional chefs in Boston. Adams also won the coveted Women Chefs and Restaurateurs’ Golden Whisk Award honoring “a woman whose passion and excellence as a chef or cook serves as a role model for others.” (Boston Herald, 10/21/07; Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, 11/1/06)
Author Deborah Heiligman ’80 and Brown professor Keith Waldrop are among the 20 nominees for the 2009 National Book Awards. (Brown Alumni Magazine, 10/15/09)
A 2007 Pulitzer Prize went to Marc Maremont ’80 of The Wall Street Journal. (Brown Daily Herald, 4/17/07)
Ralph Rugoff ’80, director of the Hayward Gallery in London, received a $100,000 award for contemporary art curators in partnership with a museum or exhibition space. (Philanthropy News Digest, 10/1/06)
Margaret Russell ’80, Editor in Chief of ELLE DÉCOR, was a judge for Bravo TV’s “Top Design” show. (New York Daily News, 1/30/07)
This American Life, hosted and produced by Ira Glass ’81, won a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Series. The TV version of radio’s This American Life with Glass premiered on Showtime. (Los Angeles Times, 9/22/08; Boston Globe, 3/22/07)
A book by Washington Post correspondent Glenn Kessler ’81 is a critical portrayal of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (Brown Daily Herald, 11/6/07)
Firefly restaurant founder and chef Brad Levy ’81 says he “found cooking by accident” while at Brown. (Brown Daily Herald, 10/31/07)
Philip Shenon ’81* tells the story behind the 9/11 report in The Commission. (New York Times, 1/4/08)
Author Jeffrey Eugenides ’82 discussed his celebrated novels and the decline of his hometown, Detroit, with the New York Times. One of his short stories will be made into a film staring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Eugenides' Pulitzer Prize-winning 2002 novel Middlesex was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. (New York Times, 5/14/09 (Video: 6:23 min.); Variety, 2/5/09; Oprah.com, 6/5/07)
The Secrets of Happily Married Men, a book by Scott D. Haltzman ’82, ’85 MD describes male behaviors that lead to a happy marriage. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/27/06)
Industrial design professor Steven Skov Holt ’82 and his wife curated an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR. (Interior Design, 7/22/08)
Vicky Oliver discussed her book, Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers and Other Office Idiots. (Audio: 5:55 min.) (Cfrb.com, 9/24/08)
The Walt Disney company has endowed two graduate fellowships at Carnegie Mellon University in honor of the late professor Randy Pausch ’82. Pausch, who chronicled his battle with pancreatic cancer in the widely-known “Last Lecture,” passed away on July 25. Pausch was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2008 by Time and was also on the cover of Parade magazine. Pausch and a book based on his “Last Lecture” were profiled by Diane Sawyer on ABC. Pausch made national news when he gave his last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at Carnegie Mellon University before a packed auditorium. (Pittsburg Business Times, 2/6/09; ABCNews.com, 7/95/08; Time Magazine, May 2008; Parade, 4/6/08; The Independent, 3/25/08; ABCNews, 3/21/08; Wall Street Journal, 9/27/07)
Sean Altman ’83 toured his solo comedy concert “Jewmongus.” Altman and Rob Tannenbaum ’83, formerly a rock duo who now tour separately, are members of the new “Jewish hipster movement.” (Washington Post, 12/21/07; Philadelphia Daily News, 12/15/06)
Design blogger Julie Carlson ’83 was profiled in Domino magazine. (Domino, November 2008)
Comedy Central’s Lauren Corrao ’83 was included in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment Power 100” list. (The Hollywood Reporter, 12/5/08)
A book by Eric Jay Dolin ’83, Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, is receiving positive reviews. (Martha’s Vineyard Times, 7/19/07)
The Simpsons producer Ian Maxtone-Graham ’83 and his team won a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. He also received an Annie Award in TV writing for “The Simpsons” episode “24 Minutes.” (Los Angeles Times, 9/22/08; Hollywood Reporter, 2/9/08)
Rick Moody ’83 discussed his novel, The Diviners. (Dallas Morning News, 1/22/07)
Krista Tippett ’83 hosted and produced the popular “Speaking of Faith” public radio show about belief, doubt, ethics and meaning. (Star Tribune, 2/4/06)
Filmmaker Christine Vachon ’83 was named in Out magazine’s annual list of the most influential gays and lesbians in America. She also was honored with the 2007 Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival. The presenter said Vachon’s movies are “as provocative and challenging as they are critically and commercially successful.” Vachon also published a memoir, A Killer Life, about her rise to the top ranks of independent film producers. Vachon*, founder of Killer Films, also made the Hollywood Reporter’s 2007 Indie Power 50 List. (Out Magazine, April 2008; PoughkeepsieJournal.com, 10/15/07; indieWIRE.com, 9/26/06; Hollywood Reporter, 1/18/07)
In Namaste Man, actor and first-time playwright Andrew Weems ’83 revisits his years as a boy growing up in Nepal. (The Seattle Times, 6/3/08)
Sean Kelly ’84 won the annual Newspaper Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society. (Editor and Publisher, 5/27/08)
Brian E. Parks ’84 had an off-Broadway comedy, Goner. (Detroit Free Press, 1/23/06)
Lee Rolontz ’84, known as VH1’s “Development Diva,” was hired into the company by Lauren Zalaznick ’84, a classmate she had never met. (Broadcasting and Cable, 9/7/09)
Bad Voodoo’s War, a documentary by Deborah Scranton ’84, aired on PBS’s Frontline. Her documentary, The War Tapes, shot by soldiers who were given their own cameras while in Iraq, won Best Documentary Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Washington Post, 4/2/08; Wired News, 04/28/06; Brown Daily Herald, 10/27/06)
Journalist Doug Sovern ’84 thrives on the spontaneity of his career, from Mount Everest to the Tour de France. (Brown Daily Herald, 11/14/07)
A special Academy Award for achievements in motion picture special effects went to Jerry Tessendorf ’84 PhD, Michael Kowalski ’85, ’99 ScM and Jonathan Cohen ’00. (Inside Science News, 2/6/08)
Lauren Zalaznick ’84 made Time Magazine’s list of 100 “World’s Most Influential People.” NBC's Zalaznick was included in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment Power 100” list. Zalaznick, president of Bravo network, also was honored in Details’ annual “Mavericks” issue. She was also featured in the New York Times Magazine, credited with the success of the Bravo network. (Time.com, May 2009; The Hollywood Reporter, 12/5/08; New York Times, 10/30/08; Details, April 2007)
Amanda Green ’85 wrote the lyrics for a musical based on the Nick Hornby novel High Fidelity. (New York Times, 12/3/06)
Filmmaker Todd Haynes ’85 will be a featured speaker at the South by Southwest 2009 Film Conference and Festival. Haynes co-wrote a film chronicling Bob Dylan’s life. Also involved were producer Christine Vachon ’83 and soundtrack supervisor Randall Poster ’84. (Austin Business Journal, 12/16/08; Variety, 1/2/07)
Kick Like a Girl, a documentary by Jenny Mackenzie ’84 about a girls soccer team, aired on HBO. (Deseret News, 5/28/09)
A children’s book by Brian Lies ’85*, Bats at the Beach, rocketed to #2 on Amazon and the New York Times children’s bestseller list, shortly after a rave review on NPR’s “Weekend Edition.” (Boston Globe, 7/29/06)
David Munro ’85 wrote and directed the movie Full Grown Men, which received positive critical acclaim at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. Sheila Ennis ’86, financial mastermind behind the movie, formulated a new funding model that tapped into alternative private investors. (Nerve, 5/7/06)
Lucy Spelman ’85 offers tales of being a vet in her book, The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients. (Brown Daily Herald, 9/18/08)
Starting Out in the Evening by Andrew Wagner ’85 played to an audience of 600 at the Sundance Film Festival. (Hollywood Reporter, 1/23/07)
Designer Sheila Bridges ’86, named one of the world’s 25 most inspiring women by Essence, discussed her work in a Washington Post profile. (Washington Post, 11/8/06)
Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim ’86 created a documentary on the electric guitar featuring Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. Guggenheim also directed a film about Barack Obama similar to a piece his father produced for Robert F. Kennedy. Guggenheim's film about Al Gore’s global warming presentations, “An Inconvenient Truth,” premiered at Sundance and won an Academy Award for best documentary feature. (New York Times, 6/18/09; New York Times, 8/17/08; New York Times, 5/23/06; New York Times, 2/26/07)
A bidding war granted Twelve, founded two years ago by Jonathan Karp ’86, the rights to the memoirs of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. (CBS News, 11/27/07)
Laura Linney ’86 won a Golden Globe award for her role in HBO’s John Adams. Linney also won a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress, Miniseries or Movie, for her role in HBO’s John Adams. Linney* also received her third Oscar nomination for her role in The Savages. (Broadwayworld.com, 1/11/09; People's Daily Online, 9/22/08; Providence Journal, 2/10/08)
Former Brown professor Bonnie Metzgar ’86 is the new artistic director of Chicago’s About Face Theater. (Brown Daily Herald, 9/12/08)
Timothy Blake Nelson ’86 co-starred in American Violet, one of two American films picked for the Telluride Film Festival. He also played the role of Quince and George Morfogen ’54 the role of Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. (The Times-Picayune, 11/18/08; NYTheatre.com, 8/18/07)
Lynn Nottage ’86 won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Nottage was also among the 24 recipients of the MacArthur “Genius” Grants in 2007. She will receive $100,000 a year for five years. MacArthur Fellows are chosen on the basis of the winners’ creativity, originality, and potential. (Broadway.com, 4/20/09; Broadway.com, 11/25/07)
Mark Putnam ’86 produced Barack Obama’s primetime special and Michelle Obama's Democratic National Convention bio video. (Newsweek, 10/23/08)
Writer and filmmaker Beena Sarwar ’86 was one of more than 180 journalists arrested for protesting the strict limitations put on Pakistani media by President Musharraf. (Inter Press Service, 11/23/07)
Suzanne Wang ’86 ScM, the hostess of House Hunters, is also a stand-up comic. (Brown Alumni Magazine, Nov/Dec 2006)
Michael Chorost ’87 wrote Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human and was featured in a PBS documentary about the cochlear implant in his skull that allows him to hear. (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/18/07)
A short story by Jeffrey Eugenides ’87 will be made into a film staring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. (Variety, 2/5/09)
Stephanie Grace ’87, Peter Kovacs ’78 and Mary Swerczek ’96 are among those sharing a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (Pultizer Web site, 4/17/06; Brown Daily Herald, 7/17/06)
Peter Jacobson ’87 stars as Dr. Taub on the TV show House. (Video: 4:11 min.) (Myfoxny.com, 4/13/09)
Brown professor Karl Jacoby ’87 discussed Shadows at Dawn, his book about an 1871 Indian massacre, on NPR’s All Things Considered. (Audio: 5:29 min.) (NPR.com, 12/13/08)
Afaa Michael Weaver ’87 AM was featured in Poets & Writers magazine. (Poets & Writers magazine, Nov/Dec, 2007)
Reknowned designer Jonathan Adler ’88 was a judge for Bravo TV’s Top Design show. (New York Daily News, 1/30/07)
“My Other Husband,” an essay by Ann Harleman ’88 AM, recently appeared in AARP Magazine. (AARP Magazine, 1/08)
Actor Hill Harper ’88 tackles the thorny relationship between black men and women in a new book, The Conversation. Harper also co-anchored BET’s coverage of President Obama’s inauguration. CSI: NY star Harper is also a philanthropist, businessman, and author. Harper has published a book about mentoring young black men. (EbonyJet.com, 9/9/09; baltimoresun.com, 1/21/09; Brown Daily Herald, 2/13/08; Associated Press, 5/13/06)
New York’s Museum of Modern Art has acquired The Bourne Identity and its sequels, each one directed or produced by Doug Liman ’88, for its permanent collection. Liman also discusses his career, his filmmaking style (labeled “Limania” by friend and screenwriter Simon Kinberg ’95) and more, in New York Magazine. Previously, Liman recalled Brown’s impact on his life in a film festival keynote. (The Los Angeles Times, 5/30/08; New York Magazine, 1/13/08; Brown Daily Herald, 4/16/07)
Inheritance, a book of photography by Andrea Stern ’88, chronicles 15 years of family gatherings and daily life. (Jewish Daily Forward, 3/30/07)
PBS airs “Wisdom for Life: A Guide to Western Philosophy” by James Thomas ’88. (Greenwich Citizen, 1/10/06)
A 2007 Pulitzer Prize went to James Bandler ’89 of The Wall Street Journal. (Brown Daily Herald, 4/17/07)
Adam Bock ’89 AM won the playwriting award at the 52nd annual Obie Awards. (Backstage, 5/22/07)
Ann Cherkis ’89 was named to Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” list. (Variety, 6/18/08)
Josh Friedman ’89 is creator, producer and writer for the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (The Independent, 10/21/08)
David Kamp ’89 authored The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation. (New York Times, 10/01/06)
Tom Scott ’89, president of Plum TV, was honored in Details’ annual “Mavericks” issue. (Details, April 2007)
1970-1979
The musical Michelangelo, by former priest Enrico Garzilli ’70 PhD, was produced by Opera Providence. He has another work heading for Broadway next spring. (Providence Journal, 4/22/07)
At the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Ross McElwee ’70 garnered the Career Award. (Independent Weekly, 4/11/07)
JoBeth Williams ’70, best known for her roles in Poltergeist and The Big Chill, starred in American Conservatory Theater’s The Quality of Life. (examiner.com, 10/24/08)
Katherine Farley ’71 was appointed chairwoman of Lincoln Center. (New York Times, 9/10/09)
In Larry’s Kidney, by Daniel A. Rose ’71, two estranged cousins travel to China for an illegal kidney transplant. (The Washington Post, 5/31/09)
Billie Tsien ’71 and her husband Tod Williams were chosen by the Barnes Foundation to design its new $100 million museum on Philadelphia’s “museum mile.” Williams and Tsien were also hired to redesign the Lincoln Center Harmony Atrium. (New York Times, 9/10/07; New York Times, 11/1/06)
Lance Williams ’72 co-authored “Game of Shadows,” investigating athletes’ use of designer drugs. (Brown Daily Herald, 3/16/06)
Led by saxophonist and composer Ken Field ’74, the experimental brass band Revolutionary Snake Ensemble appeared on WNYC’s Soundcheck. (Audio: 23 min) (WNYC.org, 5/16/08)
The Guggenheim Foundation awarded a fellowship to artist Jeffrey Schiff ’74.
Associate Dean Marjorie Thompson ’74, ’79 PhD appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/28/08)
For 25 years Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller ’76 has brought Iranian art and artists to the West. (New York Times, 8/12/09)
BET’s Debra Lee ’76 was included in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment Power 100” list. (The Hollywood Reporter, 12/5/08)
Thomas E. Rothman ’76 was named one of “the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood” by Entertainment Weekly.
A new biography of Satchel Paige by Larry Tye ’76 explores the player’s persona and contribution to baseball history. Tye also collaborated with Kitty Dukakis on the book, Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy. (New York Times, 6/12/09; NPR’s Fresh Air, 09/26/06)
Stacey Farley’s ’77* created tile murals for the renovation of a New Jersey Transit station. (New York Times, 11/25/07)
Inspired by a soldier’s ultimate sacrifice to save four squad-mates in Iraq, Seth Jackson ’77 wrote a song that has affected a number of lives. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/26/07)
Michele Perchonok ’77 creates tasty and healthy meals for NASA’s orbiting space-shuttle crews. (Asia Times Online, 10/8/09)
New York Times reporter James Risen ’77 was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to reveal his confidential sources. Risen received a Pulitzer for stories on the federal government’s domestic eavesdropping. (Brown Daily Herald, 2/5/08; Brown Daily Herald, 7/17/06)
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded a fellowship to Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Art History Kaja Silverman ’77 PhD.
Children’s author Blue Balliett ’78 was profiled on NPR.org’s series “How Writers Create Their Fiction.” (NPR.org, 11/23/06)
Lisa Birnbach ’78 received two Gracie Awards for her radio show. (Brown Daily Herald, 4/25/07)
Peter Kovacs ’78, Stephanie Grace ’87, and Mary Swerczek ’98 are among those sharing a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (Brown Daily Herald, 7/17/06)
The design for a public service and storage pavilion for Aspen’s Wagner Park by Willis Pember ’78 was profiled in an article about photovoltaic installations. (Architectural Record, September 2006)
Jincy Willett ’78, ’81 AM, who credits David Sedaris with saving her writing career, has a new book, The Writing Class. (SignOnSanDiego.com, 6/22/08)
Endeavor Partner Nancy Josephson ’79 was included in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment Power 100” list. (The Hollywood Reporter, 12/5/08)
An op-ed by Alfie Kohn ’79 that challenges thinking on disciplining children was a most frequently e-mailed article by NYTimes.com readers. (New York Times, 9/14/09)
New York Times “notable” author Caroline Preston ’79 AM has written Gatsby’s Girl. (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/14/06)
1900-1969
George Morfogen ’54 played the role of Egeus and Tim Blake Nelson ’86 that of Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. (NYTheatre.com, 8/18/07)
Joseph Bologna ’56 starred in Boynton Beach Club, a new movie about 60-somethings re-entering the dating world at an adult community in Florida. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/25/06)
Michael Seligman ’58 will produce the 81st Academy Awards telecast. (Variety, 10/28/08)
Elizabeth Landers ’64 is the author of The Script: The 100% Absolutely Predictable Things Men Do When They Cheat. (Detroit News, 6/8/06)
John Pleshette ’64 is directing and Stephanie Ittleson ’90 is performing in the U.S. premiere of the play Mammals. (LA Times, 1/22/09)
David Gockley ’65, ’93 DFA hon., director of the San Francisco Opera, helped ink a deal with a local radio station to broadcast the company’s operas for the first time in 25 years. Gockley is also taking the opera to the public via movie theaters around the country. (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/13/07; San Francisco Chronicle, 12/19/07)
Home, a novel by Marilynne Robinson ’66, was nominated for a National Book Award. (Brown Daily Herald, 10/15/08)
The Genius of America, co-written by Eric Lane ’65*, was well received by the New York Times. (New York Times, 11/28/07)
Marilynne Robinson ’66 won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Home. (Video: 3:14 min.) (Telegraph, 6/3/09)
James Naughton ’67 had a cabaret show at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York City. (New York Times, 6/2/06)
Lisa K. Friedman ’69 recounted the experience of committing her elderly father to a psychiatric facility. (New York Times, 8/6/09)
Provost David Kertzer ’69 told Publisher’s Weekly how he sets a historical scene his new book Amalia’s Tale. (Publisher’s Weekly, 12/10/07)
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