John Turturro

John Turturro studied at the Yale School of Drama and for his theatrical debut created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea" for which he won an Obie Award and a Theatre World Award. Since then he has performed on stage in many productions including "Waiting for Godot," in the title role of Bertold Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," and Eduardo De Filippo's "Souls of Naples," for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He most recently appeared as Hamm in "Endgame," at BAM in the spring of 2008.

For his work on television, Turturro was nominated for a SAG Award for his work in the role of Billy Martin in "The Bronx is Burning" in 2008 and for his portrayal of Howard Cosell in "Monday Night Mayhem" in 2003. In 2004 he won an Emmy for his guest appearance on the hit series "Monk."

Turturro has performed in more than 70 films, including Martin Scorcese's "The Color of Money," Tony Bill's "Five Corners," Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," "Jungle Fever" and "Mo' Better Blues," Robert Redford's "Quiz Show," Peter Weir's "Fearless," Tom DiCillo's "Box of Moonlight," Alison Anders' "Grace of My Heart," as Primo Levi in Francesco Rosi's "La Tregua," and Joel and Ethan Coen's "Miller's Crossing," "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou." For his lead role in the Coen Brothers' "Barton Fink," he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the David D. Donatello Award. Other films include Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd", John Dahl's "Rounders," Sally Potter's "The Man Who Cried," Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?," "You Don't Mess with Zohan" and "Mister Deeds" with Adam Sandler Michael Bay's "Transformers" films.

He has directed three other films; for his directorial debut, "Mac," Turturro won the Camera d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival. His second film, "Illuminata" was in official competition at Cannes in 1997, and his third, "Romance & Cigarettes," debuted at in official competition in Venice in 2005.