Biography

Kenneth Lonergan

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Kenneth Lonergan is a playwright, screenwriter and director. His film, You Can Count on Me (2000), which he wrote and directed, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, won the Sundance 2000 Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the NY Film Critics Circle, LA Film Critics Circle, Writers Guild of America and National Board of Review awards for Best Screenplay of 2001, the AFI awards for Best Film and Best New Writer. He co-wrote the film, Gangs of New York (2002), which garnered a WGA and Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. As a playwright, he has been represented in New York by Lobby Hero, (Playwrights Horizons, John Houseman Theatre, Drama Desk Best Play nominee, Outer Critics Circle Best Play and John Gassner Playwrighting nominee, included in the 2000-2001 Best Plays annual), The Waverly Gallery (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Promenade; 2001 Pulitzer Prize runner-up), and "This is Our Youth" (Drama Desk Best Play nominee). "Lobby Hero" (Olivier Award Nominee for Best Play) and "This Is Our Youth" have also received productions on London's West End.
- IMDb mini biography by: T. Parker

Directed 4 Oscar nominated performances: Laura Linney, Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges. Affleck won for his performance in Manchester by the Sea (2016).
Wrote an early draft of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) without credit.
Earned an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing for New York University's Tish School of Arts.
Nominated for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "The Waverly Gallery".
Father, with J. Smith-Cameron, of daughter Nellie Lonergan.

I'm always struck when I go somewhere I've never been before, especially if it's in my home town, by just how different the atmosphere can be, and how disorienting it can be - especially if there's any kind of trouble.
I can remember when I was 24, and I broke up with my first serious girlfriend for the first time. She was a very nice person, but she had a little bit of a tendency toward melodrama... Her response was to take the key to my apartment off of her key chain and hand it back to me.
Filmmaking, like any other art, is a very profound means of human communication; beyond the professional pleasure of succeeding or the pain of failing, you do want your film to be seen, to communicate itself to other people.
It's not a character flaw to become an adult.
You can shoot a film in New York without seeing the Empire State Building. Or Starbucks... although the latter is much less realistic.

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