Paul Rudnick

Paul Rudnick is a celebrated playwright, screenwriter, columnist, and novelist. For more than 20 years, he has been one of America's most prominent and beloved comedic writers. From his acclaimed, much performed plays to his screenplays of wildly popular films to his regular contributions to Premiere magazine and The New Yorker, he has established himself as a comic genius whose talents transcend any one genre. A gifted raconteur, he has shared his hilarious adventures of working in Hollywood and on Broadway at the New Yorker Festival, universities, Jewish organizations, and is a perfect keynote speaker for libraries, film and theatre organizations, and as an after-dinner speaker at fundraisers and charitable galas.

Rudnick's collection of stories and essays, I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey (Harper), is a brilliant, side-splittingly funny collection of essays in which he trains his wickedly perceptive eye on all manner of hilarious subjects: from living in a series of increasingly bizarre, altogether fabulous apartments in New York City; to cavorting with a cast of colorful artists who have to be read to be believed; to dealing with some of the most perplexing yet endearing personalities in show business; to handling the finer points of putting up with, and loving, one's family, however out of their gourds they may be; and, above all, to keeping one's tongue sharp in the midst of life's many obstacles and hilarities.

For more than 25 years, Paul Rudnick's plays have been making America split its stitches in laughter. His latest book The Collected Plays of Paul Rudnick reminds readers far and wide of the great influence that Rudnick's comedic timing has had on the world of American theater.

Rudnick's plays, which have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world, include The New Century, I Hate Hamlet, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Regrets Only, Valhalla, and Jeffrey, for which he won an Outer Critics Circle Award, the John Gassner Playwrighting Award, and an Obie. His screenplays include In &Out, Sister Act, Addams Family Values, and the screen adaptation of Jeffrey. His articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, and his work appears frequently in The New Yorker. He is rumored to be quite close to Premiere magazine's film critic, Libby Gelman-Waxner, whose collected columns have been published under the title If You Ask Me. His novels are Social Disease and I'll Take It.

Born in Piscataway, New Jersey, Rudnick graduated from Yale University and lives in New York City.

An Evening with Paul Rudnick

I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey

I Hate Hamlet: Tales of Life Behind the Wicked Broadway Stage

Sister Act: Adventures in Writing for Hollywood