1.
Uma Thurman
–
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies, following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue, she starred in Dangerous Liaisons. She starred in more films throughout the 1990s such as Batman & Robin, Gattaca. Thurman was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Film for Hysterical Blindness, hailed as Quentin Tarantinos muse, she reunited with the director to play the main role in both Kill Bill films, which brought her two additional Golden Globe Award nominations. Other acting credits in the decade include Be Cool, The Producers, Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her forename Uma, Sanskrit उमा, literally means splendour, light and her father, Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, an academic and writer, he lived as an ordained Buddhist monk for three years. Her mother, Nena von Schlebrügge, was German nobility and a model, discovered in Stockholm. Thurmans mother was born in Mexico City, Mexico, of Swedish, German and Danish descent, while Thurmans father was born in New York, Thurman received a Buddhist upbringing, and spent altogether around two years in the Indo-Himalayan town of Almora. She now considers herself to be an agnostic and she grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she went to Amherst Regional Middle School, then moved to Woodstock, New York. She has three brothers, Ganden, Dechen, and Mipam, and a half-sister named Taya, from her fathers previous marriage, Thurmans first cousin, once removed, is Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge. Thurman is described as having been an awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her tall frame, angular bone structure, enormous feet, when Thurman was 10 years old, a friends mother suggested a nose job. As a child, she suffered bouts of body dysmorphic disorder, in the eighth grade she discovered her love for acting. Talent scouts noticed her performance as Abigail in a production of The Crucible, Thurman attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school in Massachusetts, before dropping out to pursue a career in acting. Thurman began her career as a model at age 15. Her early modeling credits included Glamour and the December 1985 and May 1986 covers of British Vogue and she made her movie debut in 1988, appearing in four films that year. Her first two were the school comedy Johnny Be Good and teen thriller Kiss Daddy Goodnight. The most notable of these first four films was Oscar-winning drama Dangerous Liaisons, a commercial success, the picture also garnered Thurman recognition and acclaim from critics and audiences, film critic Roger Ebert found her to be well cast in her tricky key role. At the time, insecure about her appearance, she spent roughly a year in London, during which she often wore loose, malkovich said of her, There is nothing twitchy teenager-ish about her, I haven’t met anyone like her at that age
2.
HBO
–
Home Box Office is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Time Warner through its respective flagship company Home Box Office, Inc. HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service in the United States, in 2014, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.79 billion, compared to the US$1.68 billion it accrued in 2013. HBO has 49 million subscribers in the United States and 130 million worldwide as of 2016, the network provides seven 24-hour multiplex channels, including HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, HBO Signature and HBO Family. It launched the streaming service HBO Now in April 2015, and has over 2 million subscribers in the United States as of February 2017. In addition to its U. S. subscriber base, HBO distributes content in at least 151 countries, HBO subscribers generally pay for an extra tier of service that includes other cable- and satellite-exclusive channels even before paying for the channel itself. Cable providers can require the use of a converter box – usually digital – in order to receive HBO, many HBO programs have been syndicated to other networks and broadcast television stations, and a number of HBO-produced series and films have been released on DVD. The new system, which Dolan named Sterling Information Services, became the first urban underground cable system in the United States. In that same year, Time-Life, Inc. purchased a 20% stake in Dolans company, in the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation in France, Charles Dolan began to think of ideas to make Sterling Manhattan profitable. He came up with the concept for a television service. Dolan later presented his idea to Time-Life management, though satellite distribution seemed only a distant possibility at the time, he persuaded Time-Life to back him on the project. To gauge whether consumers would be interested in subscribing to a pay television service, in a meeting of Dolan and some Time-Life executives who were working on the project, various other names were discussed for the new service. Home Box Office launched on November 8,1972, however, HBOs launch came without fanfare in the press, as it was not covered by any local or national media outlets. Home Box Office distributed its first sports event immediately after the film, Four months later in February 1973, Home Box Office aired its first television special, the Pennsylvania Polka Festival. Home Box Office would use a network of relay towers to distribute its programming to cable systems throughout its service area. Sterling Manhattan Cable continued to lose money because the company had only a small base of 20,000 customers in Manhattan. Time-Life dropped the Sterling name and the company was renamed Manhattan Cable Television under Time-Lifes control in March 1973, Gerald Levin, who had been with Home Box Office since it began operations as its vice president of programming, replaced Dolan as the companys president and chief executive officer. In September 1973, Time-Life, Inc. completed its acquisition of the pay service. HBO would eventually increase its fortunes within two years, by April 1975, the service had around 100,000 subscribers in Pennsylvania and New York state, in 1974, they settled on using a geostationary communications satellite to transmit HBO to cable providers throughout the United States
3.
New Jersey
–
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants
4.
San Francisco Chronicle
–
It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. The paper benefited from the growth of San Francisco and was the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the United States by 1880. Like many other newspapers, it has experienced a fall in circulation in the early 21st century. The newspaper publishes two web sites, SFGate, which has a mixture of news and web features. Between World War II and 1971, new editor Scott Josephine Newhall took a bold, the newspaper grew in circulation to become the citys largest, overtaking the rival San Francisco Examiner. The demise of other San Francisco dailies through the late 1950s and early 1960s left the Examiner, from 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the Chronicle, beginning in the early 1990s, the Chronicle started to face competition beyond the borders of San Francisco. The Chronicle launched five zoned sections to appear in the Friday edition of the paper, the sections covered San Francisco, and four different suburban areas. They each featured a unique columnist, enterprise pieces and local news specific to the community, the newspaper added 40 full-time staff positions to work in the suburban bureaus. The de Young family controlled the paper, via the Chronicle Publishing Company, until July 27,2000, following the sale, the Hearst Corporation transferred the Examiner to the Fang family, publisher of the San Francisco Independent and AsianWeek, along with a $66-million subsidy. Under the new owners, the Examiner became a free tabloid, in 1949, the de Young family founded KRON-TV, the Bay Areas third television station. Until the mid-1960s, the station, operated from the basement of the Chronicle Building, KRON moved to studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue. The frequent bold-faced, all-capital-letter headlines typical of the Chronicles front page were eliminated, editor Ward Bushees note heralded the issue as the start of a new era for the Chronicle. On July 6,2009, the paper unveiled some alterations to the new design that included yet newer section fronts and wider use of color photographs and graphics. In a special section publisher Frank J. Vega described new, the newer look was accompanied by a reduction in size of the broadsheet. On November 9,2009, the Chronicle became the first newspaper in the nation to print on high-quality glossy paper, the high-gloss paper is used for some section fronts and inside pages. As of 2013 the publisher of the Chronicle is Jeffrey Johnson, audrey Cooper was named editor-in-chief in January 2015 and is the first woman to hold the position
5.
Bayonne, New Jersey
–
Bayonne /beɪˈjoʊn/ bay-OHN is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. Bayonne was originally formed as a township on April 1,1861, Bayonne was reincorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 10,1869, replacing Bayonne Township, subject to the results of a referendum held nine days later. At the time it was formed, Bayonne included the communities of Bergen Point, Constable Hook, Centreville, Pamrapo, Bayonne is east of Newark, the states largest city, north of Elizabeth in Union County and west of Brooklyn. It shares a border with Jersey City to the north and is connected to Staten Island by the Bayonne Bridge. Originally inhabited by Native Americans, the presently known as Bayonne was claimed by the Netherlands after Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River which is named after him. However, there is no evidence for this notion, which is considered apocryphal. Whitcomb gives more credence to the idea that Erastus Randall, E. C. Bramhall, four striking workers were killed when strikebreakers protected by police fired into a crowd. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had an area of 11.082 square miles. The city is located south of Jersey City on a peninsula known as Bergen Neck surrounded by Upper New York Bay to the east, Newark Bay to the west. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include, Bergen Point, Constable Hook, as of the census of 2010, there were 63,024 people,25,237 households, and 16,051 families residing in the city. The population density was 10,858.3 per square mile, there were 27,799 housing units at an average density of 4,789.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 69. 21% White,8. 86% Black or African American,0. 31% Native American,7. 71% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,10. 00% from other races, and 3. 88% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 25. 79% of the population, non-Hispanic Whites were 56. 8% of the population. 31. 6% of all households were made up of individuals, the average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.16. In the city, the population was out with 22. 5% under the age of 18,8. 9% from 18 to 24,28. 1% from 25 to 44,27. 3% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38.4 years, for every 100 females there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and old there were 87.9 males, the U. S. Census Bureaus 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that median household income was $53,587 and the median family income was $66,077
6.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (film)
–
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a post-9/11 story about the impact of the Al Qaeda attacks on one Pakistani man and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them. In 2007, Nair read the manuscript of Hamids unpublished novel, the film was produced by Lydia and co-produced by freelance screenwriter Ami Bogani, Hansi Farsi, Anadil Hossain and US producer Robin Sweet. The estimated budget of the film is $15 million, the film was a major box office flop, earning only $2.1 million worldwide. The film premiered as the film for the 69th Venice International Film Festival. The film had a release in the United States, India. In Pakistan, the film was released in Urdu with a title as Changez on May 24,2013. In Africa, the film premiered in Kampala, Uganda, on August 24,2013, the film also screened at the 31st Munich International Film festival. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics, the film received several awards, most of them honoring the films efforts to address tolerance and xenophobia. In 2011, Anse Rainier, an American professor at Lahore University, is kidnapped soon after he leaves a movie theatre. A ransom video is sent to the US embassy, demanding the release of 690 detainees from what is described as a Muslim concentration camp in Kot Lakhpat and €700,000 for the children of Waziristan. Bobby Lincoln, an American journalist and undercover CIA informant in Pakistan, arranges to interview a colleague of Rainer, Changez Khan, Changez starts off the interview, held in a café, by declaring his admiration for the American equal playing field in economic advancement. He belongs to a class of people who, while genteel and educated and his father is an elderly poet and man of letters, who is respected by all who know him. Nevertheless, money has always been a problem in the family. After graduation, he earned a job position at a top Wall Street valuation firm, meanwhile, he met a young American photographer, Erica, and a relationship developed. The World Trade Center attacks takes place while Changez is in Manila on business, when he returns to the USA, he is strip-searched at the airport in New York. Later on, he is interrogated by federal agents, after being mistakenly arrested in the street as he left the Underwood Samson building. His attitude toward the USA seems to change, as does his relationship with Erica, who has yet to come to terms with the loss of her former boyfriend, feeling responsible for his death. Changez eventually breaks up with her, after she invites him to the opening of her art show, she had used details of their relationship without his knowledge
7.
Gena Rowlands
–
Virginia Cathryn Gena Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night, in November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. Rowlands was born as Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin and her mother, Mary Allen, was a housewife who later worked as an actress under the stage name Lady Rowlands. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and state legislator and he was a member of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, and was of Welsh descent. She had a brother, David Rowlands and her family moved to Washington, D. C. From 1947–50, she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she was a popular student already renowned for her beauty and she left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the early 1950s, Rowlands performed with theatre companies. She made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch and toured in a production of the play. In 1956, she starred in Middle of the Night opposite Edward G. Robinson and she appeared alongside husband Cassavetes on an episode of the 1959–60 NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. She also appeared on an episode of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin, Rowlands made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. In 1961–62, she starred as Teddy Carella, the wife of Robert Lansing. In that same season, she appeared on ABCs Target, The Corruptors and she also guest starred in CBSs The Lloyd Bridges Show and ABCs Breaking Point. In 1963, she guest-starred in an episode on the NBC western series, Bonanza and The Virginian, in 1967, she was cast as socialite Adrienne Van Leyden in the prime time ABC soap opera Peyton Place. According to Boston University film scholar Ray Carney, Rowlands sought to suppress an early version of Cassavetes first film, Shadows, Rowlands also became involved in the screenings of Husbands and Love Streams, according to Carney. At Rowlands request, UCLA created a print with almost ten minutes of content edited out. The alternative print is the one that has been made available for rental. In 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie An Early Frost and she won an Emmy for her portrayal of former First Lady of the United States Betty Ford in the 1987 made-for-TV movie The Betty Ford Story. In 1988, Rowlands starred in Woody Allens dramatic film Another Woman and she played Marion Post, a middle-aged professor who is prompted to a journey of self-discovery when she overhears the therapy sessions of another woman
8.
Juliette Lewis
–
Juliette L. Lewis is an American actress and singer. She gained fame for her role in Martin Scorseses 1991 remake of the thriller Cape Fear for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. This followed with roles in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, Natural Born Killers, Strange Days, The Evening Star, Kalifornia, From Dusk till Dawn. Her work in television has resulted in two Emmy nominations, Lewis launched a career as a singer and musician, leading the American rock band, Juliette and the Licks, until 2009 when she launched a solo career. Lewis was born in Los Angeles, California, to Geoffrey Lewis, an actor, and his wife, Glenis Batley. She has eight siblings – brothers Lightfield, Peter, Miles, and Matthew, and sisters Brandy, Hannah, Dierdre Lewis, Lewis appeared in The Wonder Years as Waynes girlfriend in Episodes 24,34 and 36. She also played Audrey Griswold in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, over the next few years, she appeared in Woody Allens Husbands and Wives, Peter Medaks Romeo Is Bleeding, and opposite Brad Pitt in Kalifornia. In 1993, she acted alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp in the drama film Whats Eating Gilbert Grape and she played Mallory Knox in Oliver Stones Natural Born Killers. She played a singer in the film Strange Days, doing her own singing on covers of two songs written by PJ Harvey. She received an Emmy nomination for her performance in Hysterical Blindness in 2003 and she also appeared in the HIM music video for Buried Alive By Love in 2003. She appeared in the 2004 film Starsky & Hutch, playing the role of Kitty, Lewis appeared in Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto IV, providing the voice of Juliette, the host of fictional radio station Radio Broker. She appeared in a GAP commercial in which she was dancing with Daft Punk to the tune of the song Digital Love and she also appeared in the Jan Kounen film Renegade with Vincent Cassel. In 2012 she starred in the short-lived series The Firm, on NBC as Tammy and she reprised her role as Audrey Griswold in 2012 in a series of Old Navy holiday commercials featuring the Griswold family. In 2015, she had a role in the television series Wayward Pines. Lewis launched a career as a singer and musician, leading American rock band Juliette. Lewis features on the track Bad Brother by the band The Infidels, from The Crow, Salvation Soundtrack album, Lewis has also appeared on three tracks by Electronic Music group The Prodigys 2004 CD Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. In 2006, Blender magazine included her in their hottest women of rock music list, in 2009, Lewis performed at the Przystanek Woodstock in Poland. In 2010, she played at the Rock for People festival in the Czech Republic, in December 2010, Lewis hosted the game television show Never Mind the Buzzcocks and repeated in January 2012
9.
Justin Chambers
–
Justin Willman Chambers is an American actor and former fashion model. Born in Ohio he went to Southeastern High School, South Charleston, Ohio, Chambers began modelling after being approached by a modelling scout in Paris. He went on to represent fashion brands including Calvin Klein, Armani, Chambers began his acting career with a recurring role in soap opera Another World, and made his feature film debut with a supporting role in 1999s comedy drama Liberty Heights. His breakthrough role in 2005 when he was cast as Dr. Alex Karev in the ABC medical drama series Greys Anatomy, Chambers was born in Springfield, Ohio, on July 11,1970 to Pamela Sue and John William Eugene Chambers II, who were both deputy sheriffs. Chambers was brought up in Springfield and growing up he aspired to be a dentist and he has a fraternal twin brother, Jason, one older brother, John Jr. and two older sisters, Mia and Susan. Chambers and his brother were hospitalized often as children due to frequent bouts of pneumonia. He attended Southeastern High School in South Charleston, Ohio, and later moved to New York, Chambers was discovered by a modelling scout on the Metro and went on to star in ad campaigns for Calvin Kleins fragrance range. He worked throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States for Calvin Klein, Armani, after deciding on an acting career, he moved to New York City, where he studied at the HB Studio. Studios and Ron Stetson Studios for four years and that landed him a few television roles, including recurring role in soap opera Another World as Nicholas Hudson, and New York Undercover. In 1998 he was cast as regular in the short-lived CBS primetime soap opera Four Corners. In 2003, Chambers was cast as one of the leads in the CBS crime drama Cold Case but left after appearing in only four episodes. In August 2004, Chambers was cast as surgical intern Alex Karev in Shonda Rhimess medical drama series Greys Anatomy, opposite Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, and T. R. Knight. In 2006, along with other cast members, he was awarded a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, in 2009, he also guest-starred on the Greys Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice, for the Greys Anatomy/Private Practice crossover event. In 1993, he married Keisha Chambers, a model agency booker. The two met at a meeting while Chambers was working for ad campaigns for Calvin Klein and Keisha was working at a modeling agency, isabella, twins Maya and Kaila, Eva and Jackson. They have adopted two rescue dogs and own a beagle, Chambers is involved with the nonprofit Pentecostal Christian Church mission Dream Center of Los Angeles. Chambers follows a healthy lifestyle and practices hot yoga
10.
Emmy Award
–
An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award, the Tony Award, and the Grammy Award. Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced, each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies. The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences established the Emmy Award as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The first Emmy Awards ceremony took place on January 25,1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the very first Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony. In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, in 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was formed in New York City as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, and help to also supervise the Emmys. The NATAS also established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming, the ATAS still however maintained its separate regional ceremony honoring local programming in the Los Angeles Area. Originally there was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States, in 1974, the first Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held to specifically honor achievement in national daytime programming. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed, also, the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and initially aired outside the U. S. was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, in 1977, due to various conflicts, the ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties. However, they agreed to share ownership of the Emmy statue and trademark. With the rise of television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. The ATAS also began accepting original online-only web television programs in 2013, the Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model. The TV Academy rejected a total of forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus design in 1948. The statuette has become the symbol of the TV Academys goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television, The wings represent the muse of art. When deciding a name for the award, Academy founder Syd Cassyd originally suggested Ike, however, Ike was also the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Academy members wanted something unique. Finally, television engineer and the third president, Harry Lubcke, suggested the name Immy. After Immy was chosen, it was feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette
11.
Mira Nair
–
Mira Nair is an Indian American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay. Which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Nair was born on 15 October 1957 in Rourkela, Odisha, and grew up with her two older brothers and parents in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Her father, Amrit Nair, is an Indian administrative officer, at the age of eleven, Nair and her family moved to Delhi due to her father transferring posts. By thirteen she left home to attend Loreto Convent Tara Hall, an Irish-Catholic missionary school located in Simla, following Tara Hall, Nair went on to study at Miranda House at Delhi University, where she majored in Sociology. Before she became a filmmaker, Nair was originally interested in acting, and at one point she performed plays written by Badal Sarkar, a Bengali performer. While she studied at Harvard University, Nair became involved in the theater program, at the start of her film-making career, Nair primarily made documentaries in which she explored Indian cultural tradition. For her film thesis at Harvard between 1978 and 1979, Nair produced a film entitled Jama Masjid Street Journal. In the eighteen-minute film, Nair explores the streets of Old Delhi and has conversations with Indian locals. This film was recognized as a Best Documentary winner at the American Film Festival, raising roughly $130,000 for the project, the fifty-nine-minute film was shot over a span of two months, and was subject to criticism from Nair’s loved ones. Released in 1987, Children of a Desired Sex exposed how female fetuses were aborted due to a society favoring male offspring, after departing the documentary film-making field, Nair teamed up with her old friend, Sooni Taraporevala, and together the two began writing Salaam Bombay. Five years before the film was released in 1988, Salaam Bombay. was also nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989. Following the success of Salaam Bombay, Nair, alongside Taraporevala, continued challenge audiences once more by telling the story of Ugandan-born Indians displaced in Mississippi in her 1991 film, Mississippi Masala. The film features actors like Denzel Washington, Roshan Seth, the film is centered on a carpet-cleaner business owner, played by Denzel Washington, who falls in love with the daughter of one of his Indian clients, played by Sarita Choudhury. The relationship in the film reveals the evident prejudice in African-American and Indian communities, the film was well received by critics and even earned a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992. The picture was also a recipient of three awards at the Venice Film Festival, Nair went on to direct four more films before she produced one of her most notable films, Monsoon Wedding. Released in 2001, the film told the story of a Punjabi Indian wedding, with only a small crew and some of Nair’s acquaintances and relatives as cast members, the film grossed over $30 million worldwide, which made it the most money ever made by an Indian film. The film was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, Nair then directed the Golden Globe winning Hysterical Blindness
12.
Ben Gazzara
–
Biagio Anthony Gazzarra, known as Ben Gazzara, was an American film, stage, and television actor and director. His best known films include Anatomy of a Murder, Voyage of the Damned, Inchon, Road House, The Big Lebowski, Happiness, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of Sam, Dogville and Paris, je taime. He was a collaborator with John Cassavetes, working with him on Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. As the star of the television series Run for Your Life and he won his first, and only, Emmy Award for his role in the television film Hysterical Blindness. Gazzara grew up in New Yorks Kips Bay neighborhood, he lived on East 29th Street and participated in the program at Madison Square Boys. He attended New York Citys Stuyvesant High School, but finally graduated from Saint Simon Stock in the Bronx, years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teen years. He went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering and he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and afterward joined the Actors Studio. In 1954, Gazzara made several appearances on NBCs legal drama Justice and he joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film The Strange One. Then came a performance as a soldier on trial for avenging his wifes rape in Otto Premingers courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. Contemporary screen credits included The Young Doctors, A Rage to Live, when I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers, he said. I wont tell you the pictures I turned down because youll say, You are a fool, gazarra returned to Broadway for a production of Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. with Colleen Dewhurst in 1976. Some of the actors most formidable characters were those he created with his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s and they collaborated for the first time on Cassavetess film Husbands, in which he appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. In The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Gazzara took the role of the hapless strip-joint owner. Also during this period he starred in the television miniseries QB VII, the six-and-a-half hour series was based on a book by Leon Uris and co-starred Anthony Hopkins. He also played gangster Al Capone in the biographical film Capone and appeared in Voyage of the Damned, High Velocity and he starred with Rowlands in the critically acclaimed AIDS-themed TV movie An Early Frost, for which he received his third Emmy nomination. Gazzara appeared in 38 films, many for television, in the 1990s and he worked with a number of renowned directors, such as the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, David Mamet, Walter Hugo Khouri, Todd Solondz, John Turturro, and John McTiernan. In his seventies, Gazzara continued to be active, in 2003, he was in the ensemble cast of the experimental film Dogville, directed by Lars von Trier of Denmark and starring Nicole Kidman, as well as the television film Hysterical Blindness. Several other projects have recently completed or are currently in production
