Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn is an Obie-winning playwright and a celebrated stage and screen actor. He was born in 1942 and was the older son of William and Cecile Shawn. He graduated from Harvard in 1965. His first play, Our Late Night won the Obie award. In 2005 he was awarded the The PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Awards for Drama—which recognize a master American dramatist in mid-career, whose literary achievements are vividly apparent in the rich and striking language of their work.

Wallace Shawn is the also the author of The Mandrake, Aunt Dan & Lemon, Marie and Bruce, The Fever, and The Designated Mourner. Shawn cowrote and starred in the art-house classic My Dinner with André; performed in numerous Woody Allen films including Manhattan and Radio Days; starred in other films including The Hotel New Hampshire, The Princess Bride, and Clueless; and on the television shows The Cosby Show and Murphy Brown. He lives in New York.