Mike Reiss
Mike Reiss is has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his eighteen years writing for “The Simpsons”. In 2006, Reiss received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus. Reiss co-created the animated series “The Critic” and created Showtime’s hit cartoon “Queer Duck” (about a gay duck). “Queer Duck” was recently named one of “The 100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time” by the BBC. “Queer Duck: the Movie” was released to rave reviews in July 2006. The film won awards in New York, Chicago, Sweden, Germany and Wales. Reiss’s other TV credits include “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”, “ALF”, and “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”. “My Life in Ruins”, a film inspired by his travels to 61 countries, was released in 2009. Reiss was also co-wrote ‘The Simpsons Movie” and “Ice Age 3”, with a combined world-wide gross of $1.5 billion. His caveman detective story “Cro-Magnon P.I.” won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He has published fourteen children’s books, including the best-seller “How Murray Saved Christmas” and the award-winning “Late for School”. Reiss also composes puzzles for “NPR”, and “Games Magazine”. As a professional speaker, Reiss has lectured at over one
hundred colleges and institutions, on six continents. His topics include “The Simpsons”, comedy and Judaism, and the sorry state of television. Reiss is a former president of “The Harvard Lampoon” and editor of “The National Lampoon”. He has been happily married for twenty-one years. Like most children’s book authors, he has no children.
JASON FURLANI
A native of Schenectady, NY, Jason Furlani has asserted himself as a ten-year veteran in the New York theatre world, having had successful productions of his work with various companies and on numerous stages in NYC. Most recently, the Blue Collar Theater Company presented Jason’s full-length comedy The Big Vig at the Bank Street Theatre for a month-long run. Prior to that, the Blue Collar Theater Company presented his full-length play LEADED at the West End Theatre, as well as his ten minute play Susan is a Pinhead, which had its debut as part of the Blue Collar “Shorts” Festival. Other companies that have produced Jason’s work include: Zena Group, Real to Reel Productions and The 42nd Street Workshop, and at present, his full length drama A Long Hard Rain is under consideration by various companies in NYC. Additionally, the film rights to A Long Hard Rain have been optioned by Propeller Productions in L.A. It is currently being adapted for the screen by the playwright. Jason’s newest work, Family Trees, is under consideration for the 2007 O’Neil Playwrights Conference. Along with his work in the theatre, the thirty-six year old writer has penned the script for both of the Families of Freedom fundraising events (a 9/11 charity) hosted in successive order by Chevy Chase and Carol Kane. A proud father and loving husband, Jason splits time between Los Angeles and his home base in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Emily and daughter Eva.n (pictured)
The Evening will feature LIVE MUSIC by: Pete Sinjin
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