Alan Zweibel to Receive WGAE Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing
NEW YORK CITY – Alan Zweibel will receive the Writers Guild of America East’s (WGAE) Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing. The award is given “in honor of a lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television.” Zweibel will receive his award at the 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards ceremony held on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at New York City ’s Hudson Theatre.
One of Saturday Night Live’s original writers, Alan Zweibel has won multiple Emmy, Writers Guild, and TV Critics awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (co-creator and executive producer), Monk, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In film, he co-wrote the screenplays for Dragnet, North, and The Story of Us. He authored the popular children’s book, Our Tree Named Steve, and the 2006 Thurber Prize winning novel, The Other Shulman. His humor has appeared in such diverse publications as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Op-Ed page, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, The Huffington Post and MAD Magazine.
Theatrically, he adapted his best selling memoir, Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story into a successful play, he collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award winning show, 700 Sundays, as well as Martin Short’s Broadway hit Fame Becomes Me.
Currently, he is creating a TV series with Susie Essman and has just written a new children’s book titled A Babe For Abe. His next theatrical venture is a play titled Sunday Nights at 8:00 that will be directed by Jerry Zaks.
“As someone who knew Ian McLellan Hunter well, I can attest that Alan Zweibel is an accomplished and deserving recipient of the Hunter Award,” said Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East. “His eclectic career and comic grasp of life have delighted audiences for more than three decades. We’re all delighted that his talent is being honored by his fellow Guild members.”
Established in 1992 and named in memory of the late Ian McLellan Hunter, a WGAE member for many years, the Ian McLellan Hunter Award is presented to a WGAE member in honor of his or her lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. Hunter’s more than 20 screen credits included Eye Witness and A Woman of Distinction. Harassed by the blacklist in the 1950s, Hunter went on to write several successful television series under a pseudonym and then reemerged as a writer on many television projects, including The Blue and The Gray. Appropriately, the first recipient of the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing was Hunter’s longtime friend and writing partner, Ring Lardner, Jr., whose movie credits include Woman Of The Year, M*A*S*H, and The Cincinnati Kid. Other Hunter Award recipients include: John Patrick Shanley, Andrew Bergman, Marshall Brickman, John Sayles, Herb Gardner, Horton Foote, Bill Persky, Jay Presson Allen, Ernest Kinoy, Robert Benton, Donald E. Westlake, Walter Bernstein, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jules Feiffer, and Nora Ephron.
The 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards will take place on Saturday, February 20, 2010, in New York City at the Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel and simultaneously in Los Angeles at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. For more information or to purchase tickets to the New York City awards ceremony, call 212-767-7812 or visit the WGAE website at www.wgaeast.org/awards.
The Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO, is a labor union representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The WGAE conducts programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to, and on behalf of, writers. In addition, it represents writers’ interests on the legislative level. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org.
