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Empowering Theatre Arts Professionals through Performance, Edcuation, Networking, Service, and Outreach in Southern California | |
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Michael & Carol Kiernan Convey
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 Lainie Kazan is an artist who has reached the pinnacle in virtually every area of the entertainment world, and is proud to have always remembered her roots as a live performer. Her career was launched on Broadway in Funny Girl (where she began as Barbra Streisand’s understudy). Once she was able to display her electrifying talent, she became the “Chanteuse” of her native New York. Also on Broadway, Ms. Kazan appeared in The Government Inspector, My Favorite Year (Tony nomination), and both starred in and produced the Ethel Merman tribute, Doin’ What Comes Naturally. Regional credits include A Little Night Music, The Rink, Man of La Mancha, The Rose Tattoo, Gypsy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hello Dolly, Fiddler on the Roof, Orpheus Descending, and Plaza Suite, and most recently Off Broadway, she appeared in The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated. In Los Angeles, Ms. Kazan starred in the Broadway hit comedy, Bermuda Avenue Triangle, co-starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna at the Brentwood Theatre. Ms. Kazan has been a concert and cabaret artist for the last 35 years, singing in cabarets and hotel venues throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her latest CDs are Body and Soul and In The Groove (on which she collaborated with award-winning pianist/composer David Benoit and her daughter, Jennifer Bena).” She regularly performs to sold-out houses in Los Angeles at the Catalina Jazz Club, and has performed at the McCallum and Annenberg Theatres in Palm Springs; she is also a regular guest artist at Feinstein’s in New York. In the film world, Ms. Kazan has lent her talents to numerous well-loved blockbusters. She received critical acclaim for her role in the smash-hit comedy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which has grossed over $600 million worldwide and won the People’s Choice Award. She reprised that role in CBS’ My Big Fat Greek Life TV series, and completed a hilarious, co-starring role alongside Adam Sandler in the smash-hit, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Among her numerous additional film projects are One From The Heart (directed by Francis Ford Coppola), Richard Benjamin’s My Favorite Year, starring Peter O’Toole (Golden Globe Nomination), Lust in the Dust with Tab Hunter and Divine, Delta Force with Chuck Norris, Beaches with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, 29th Street with Danny Aiello, The Associate with Whoopi Goldberg, Disney’s The Crew with Burt Reynolds, Richard Dreyfuss and Jennifer Tilly, and Harry and the Hendersons directed by Steven Spielberg. Ms. Kazan has recurred and guest-starred on hundreds of television shows, among them The Nanny, St. Elsewhere (Emmy Nomination), The Paper Chase (CableACE Award nomination), Touched by an Angel, King of Queens, and Boston Legal. Ms. Kazan serves as an adjunct professor at her Alma Matter (Hofstra’s School of Communications), where she is on their advisory board. Always looking for ways to give back and support young talent in L.A., Ms. Kazan serves on the board of the Young Musicians Foundation, and is a National Board Member of the Screen Actors Guild. More information is available on Ms. Kazan’s website, www.LainieKazan.com. |