Leslie Urdang

Urdang attended Forest Hills High School in New York City, where she was Chairman of Senior SING! 1972 during her senior year,page 71, Forester '72 (FHHS, NYC BoE, 1972) and at which she was the graduation speaker in 2016.[https://twitter.com/LurdangUrdang/status/746843844801626112 Twitter tweet] She originally aspired to become a US senator, earning a B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3Uu6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82 "Legendary Locals of Forest Hills and Rego Park"] In 1977, after her graduation, Urdang interned for U.S. Senator John A. Durkin (D-N.H.), assisting with constituent communications and issue research.

In 1978, Urdang decided not to apply to the John F. Kennedy School of Government and instead sought and won entry to the Yale School of Drama,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/17/theater/hey-kids-let-s-put-on-a-show.html?pagewanted=all|title=Hey, Kids, Let's Put on a Show|work=The New York Times|date=July 17, 1994|access-date=August 30, 2011|author=Patricia Volk}} graduating in 1981. Her thesis there explored integrating the development of plays and films, which inspired her professional work.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/09/movies/at-vassar-a-marriage-of-the-theater-and-film.html|title=At Vassar, a Marriage of the Theater and Film|work=The New York Times|date=August 9, 1988|access-date=August 30, 2011|author=Andrew L. Yarrow}}

Urdang began dancing professionally as a child in George Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker, a chapter of her life documented in the 2006 film The Nutcracker Family: Behind the Magic.{{cite web|url=http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/dance/13284/family-jewels|title=Family jewels|publisher=Time Out New York|date=January 5, 2006|access-date=August 30, 2011|author=Gia Kourlas}}

After graduating from Yale's drama school in 1981, she, Mark Linn-Baker and Max Mayer co-founded New York Stage and Film as an institution for professional playwrights, directors, actors, and designers, as well apprentices, to live and work together to move their plays to Broadway and theaters throughout the nation.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/theater/26McGee.html|title=On Campus, an Incubator for New Plays|work=The New York Times|date=July 22, 2009|access-date=August 30, 2011|author=Celia McGee}}{{cite web|url=http://drama.yale.edu/alumni/images/alumnimagazine/magazine1011.pdf|title=New York Stage and Film: Developing New Work|publisher=Yale School of Drama|access-date=August 30, 2011|page=17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004184001/http://drama.yale.edu/alumni/images/alumnimagazine/magazine1011.pdf|archive-date=October 4, 2011|df=mdy-all}} Projects have included the Tony Award winning plays Sideman and Tru, John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award winning Doubt, and most notably the epochal, multiple-award-winning musical Hamilton.{{Cite web|last=Fierberg|first=Ruthie|date=2016-06-10|title=Hamilton Director Tommy Kail Talks The Show's Earliest Days of Development|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/hamilton-director-tommy-kail-talks-the-shows-earliest-days-of-development|access-date=2021-05-28|website=Playbill|language=en}} Urdang continues to be a Producing Director of the institution.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Urdang was a producer for Robert Redford's company 'Wildwood Enterprises' and for Gary Ross' Larger Than Life Productions. At both companies she developed several projects including the Walter Salles directed The Motorcycle Diaries. With Michael Nozik and Michael Hoffman, Urdang founded 'Serenade Films' as an independent film company designed to produce a slate of low budget production. Serenade produced Michael Cuesta's Twelve and Holding (2006 Independent Spirit Awards nominee), The Great New Wonderful with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tony Shalhoub, Edie Falco, and Stephen Colbert, Michael Hoffman's Game 6 with Michael Keaton and Robert Downey, Jr., and The Narrows.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Some of her other producing credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, Me and Veronica starring Elizabeth McGovern and Patricia Wettig, People I Know starring Al Pacino, and Olympus Pictures' Adam starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne. In March 2009, Urdang became president of Olympus Pictures,{{cite web|url=http://olympuspics.com/about.php|title=Olympus Pictures – About|publisher=Olympus Pictures|access-date=August 30, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715001742/http://www.olympuspics.com/about.php|archive-date=July 15, 2011|df=mdy-all}} producing such films as Rabbit Hole, Beginners, Thanks For Sharing, The Oranges, and Mr. Pip.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} She is now{{As of when|date=May 2021}} President of Mar-Key Pictures and most recently produced The Family Fang and The Seagull.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

In the early 1990s, Urdang shared a New York City brownstone with then-boyfriend actor Rob Morrow, during the years in which he was seen on television as the protagonist of the series Northern Exposure.{{cite web|url=http://home.comcast.net/~mcnotes/FakedAlaska.html|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20061001215006/http://home.comcast.net/%7Emcnotes/FakedAlaska.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 1, 2006|title=Faked Alaska|publisher=home.comcast.net|work=People Magazine|date=November 18, 1991|access-date=August 30, 2011|author=Staff}} In June 2012, Urdang married actor Jon Tenney.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

• Me and Veronica (1993)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
• People I Know (2002)
• Game 6 (2005)
• The Great New Wonderful (2005)
• Twelve and Holding (2005)
• The Narrows (2008)
• Adam (2009)
• Beginners (2010)
• Rabbit Hole (2010)
• The Oranges (2011)
• Mister Pip (2012)
• The Family Fang (2015)
• The Seagull (2018)
• Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)

• 2007, nominated for John Cassavetes Award at Independent Spirit Awards for Twelve and Holding{{cite news | url=http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/spirit/env-indiespirirnoms-list,0,7852197.htmlstory | title=2007 Independent Spirit Awards nominations list: John Cassavetes Award | work=Los Angeles Times | access-date=August 30, 2011}}
• In 2011 her film Beginners won the Gotham Award for Best Picture and the Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG award for Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Plummer.
• Her 2010 film Rabbit Hole won an Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for Nicole Kidman.

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0881811}}
• [http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/adam/interview-leslie-urdang 2009 Leslie Urdang video interview at traileraddict.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713025659/http://i.indiewire.com/images/uploads/i/090729_ByrneMain.jpg 2009 photo (Urdang on right)]

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Category:1956 births

Category:Film producers from New York (state)

Category:American theatre managers and producers

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:Mass media people from Queens, New York

Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni

Category:David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni

Category:Forest Hills High School (New York) alumni