Mira Nair
Nair at the 2008 IIFW Masterclass Directors Meet
Born	(1957-10-15) October 15, 1957 (age 54) Rourkela, Orissa, India
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Mitch Epstein (divorced) Mahmood Mamdani (1988–present)

Mira Nair (born October 15, 1957) is an Indian film director and producer based in New York.^[1] Her production company is Mirabai Films.

She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She used the proceeds of the film, to establish an organization for street children, called the Salaam Baalak Trust in India.^[2] She often works with longtime creative collaborator, screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, whom she met at Harvard.

She has won a number of awards, including a National Film Award and various international film festival awards, and was a nominee at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards and Filmfare Awards. She was also awarded the India Abroad Person of the Year-2007, which was presented by Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO, PepsiCo, Inc, and India Abroad Person of the Year-2006.^[3] In 2012 she was awarded India's third highest civilian award the Padma Bhushan by President of India, Pratibha Patil.^[4]

Her most recent films included Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon, The Namesake, and Amelia.^[5]

Early life[link]

Mira Nair, a Punjabi and a malayali, was born in Rourkela, Orissa^[6] where her father was employed. She was the youngest of three children from a middle-class family. Her father was a civil servant and her mother a social worker.

Mira did her early schooling at a boarding school, Loreto Convent Tara Hall in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. She studied sociology at Miranda House, Delhi University, where she became involved in political street theater and performed for three years in an amateur drama company. In 1976, at age 19 she left for the US^[7] with a scholarship at Harvard University, where she continued her studies in sociology.^[8] While at Harvard she met her first husband, photographer Mitch Epstein, as well as her screenwriter, Sooni Taraporevala and gradually moved towards making documentary films.

Career[link]

At the beginning of her career as a film artist, Nair directed four television documentaries. India Cabaret, a film about the lives of strippers in a Bombay nightclub, won the Blue Ribbon award at the 1986 American Film Festival. Salaam Bombay! (1988), with a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won many other awards. It is today considered a groundbreaking film classic, and is standard fare for film students.

The 1991 film Mississippi Masala starred Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, and profiled a family of displaced Ugandan-Indians living and working in Mississippi. The screenplay was again by Sooni Taraporevala, and produced by Michael Nozik. In 1995 her film adaption of the book The Perez Family, by Christine Bell, was released. The film starred Marisa Tomei, Alfred Molina, and Angelica Huston, and was again produced by Michael Nozik.

She was also the director of the movie Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love a provocative movie set in 16th century India. In 1998 she made My Own Country starring Naveen Andrews. It was produced for HBO Films and adapted from the memoir by Abraham Verghese by Sooni Taraporevala.

In 2001 she released Monsoon Wedding (2001), a film about a chaotic Punjabi Indian wedding with a screenplay by Sabrina Dhawan. It was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, making Nair the first female recipient of the award.^[9] After the success of Monsoon Wedding Nair collaborated with writer Julian Fellowes on her 2004 adaptation of Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. The same year she also founded Maisha, a film lab to help East Africans and South Asians learn to make films.^[10] Maisha is headquartered in Nair's adopted home of Kampala, Uganda. Later that year she rejected an offer to direct Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix saying, "...I would prefer someone else make it. I am better suited to emotions, human beings, and less interested in special effects.".^[11]

Her next film, The Namesake, premiered in fall 2006 at Dartmouth College where Nair was presented with the Dartmouth Film Award. Another premiere was held in fall 2006 with the Indo-American Arts Council in New York.^[12] The Namesake, adapted by Sooni Taraporevala from the novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, was released in March 2007. The same year she was honoured with the Pride of India award at the 9th Bollywood Movie Awards for her contributions to the film industry.^[13][14]

She directed a short film in New York, I Love You, a romantic-drama anthology of love stories set in New York and a 12-minute movie on AIDS awareness (funded by The Gates Foundation) called Migration.^[15][16]

Her biographical film Amelia was released in October 2009 to predominantly negative reviews.^[17][18]

For several years, Nair was attached to a big-budget adaptation of the novel Shantaram, but the production was shelved in 2009. Nair has also purchased the rights to Mohsin Hamid's 2007 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Nair lives near Columbia University in New York City where she is an adjunct professor in the Film Division of the School of Arts, and where her husband, Professor Mahmood Mamdani, also teaches.^[20][21] Nair and her husband first met in 1988, when she went to Uganda for the first time to research for the film Mississippi Masala.^[7] Nair has been an enthusiastic yoga practitioner for decades; when making a film, she has the cast and crew start the day with a yoga session.^[22] Nair has one son named Zohran.^[23]

Filmography[link]

• Jama Street Masjid Journal (1979)
• So Far From India (1982)
• India Cabaret (1985)
• Children Of A Desired Sex (1987)
• Salaam Bombay! (1988)^[5]
• Mississippi Masala (1991)^[5]
• The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993)
• The Perez Family (1995)^[5]
• Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)^[5]
• My Own Country (1998) (Showtime)
• Monsoon Wedding (2001)^[5]
• Hysterical Blindness (2002)
• 11'9"01 September 11 (Segment - "India") (2002)
• Still, The Children are Here (2003)
• Vanity Fair (2004)^[5]
• The Namesake (2006)^[5]
• Migration (AIDS Jaago) (2007)^[24]
• New York, I Love You (Segment - "Kosher Vegetarian") (2009)^[25]
• 8 (Segment - "How can it be?") (2008)^[26]
• Amelia (2009)^[5]

Awards[link]

Wins[link]

• 1985: Best Documentary Film, Global Village Film Festival: India Cabaret
• 1986: Golden Athena, Athens International Film Festival: India Cabaret
• 1986: Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival: India Cabaret
• 1988: Audience Award, Cannes Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
• 1988: Golden Camera (Best First Film), Cannes Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
• 1988: National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi: Salaam Bombay!^[27]
• 1988: National Board of Review Award for Top Foreign Films: Salaam Bombay!
• 1988: "Jury Prize", "Most Popular Film" and "Prize of the Ecumenical Jury" at Montreal World Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
• 1988: New Generation Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
• 1988: Lilian Gish Award (Excellence in Feature Film), Los Angeles Women in Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
• 1991: Golden Osella (Best Original Screenplay), Venice Film Festival: Mississippi Masala (with Sooni Taraporevala)^[28]
• 1991: Critics Special Award, São Paulo International Film Festival: Mississippi Masala
• 1992: Best Director (Foreign Film), Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Mississippi Masala
• 1992: Asian Media Award, Asian American International Film Festival
• 1993: Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature: Mississippi Masala
• 2000: Special Mention (Documentary and Essay), Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming: The Laughing Club of India
• 2001: Golden Lion (Best Film), Venice Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
• 2001: Laterna Magica Prize, Venice Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
• 2002: Audience Award, Canberra International Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
• 2002: Special Award for International Cinema, Zee Cine Awards: Monsoon Wedding
• 2002: UNESCO Award, Venice Film Festival: 11'9"01 September 11
• 2004: Faith Hubley Web of Life Award, Rochester-High Falls International Film Festival
• 2007: "Golden Aphrodite", Love is Folly International Film Festival (Bulgaria): The Namesake
• 2012 ; Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India

Nominations[link]

• 1989: Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: Salaam Bombay!
• 1989: César Award for Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger): Salaam Bombay!
• 1989: Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film: Salaam Bombay!
• 1990: BAFTA Film Award Best Film not in the English Language: Salaam Bombay!
• 1990: Filmfare Best Director Award: Salaam Bombay!
• 1990: Filmfare Best Movie Award: Salaam Bombay!
• 1991: Golden Lion (Best Film), Venice Film Festival: Mississippi Masala
• 1996: Golden Seashell, San Sebastián International Film Festival: Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
• 1999: Best Film, Verzaubert International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival: My Own Country
• 2001: Screen International Award (Best Non-European Film), European Film Awards: Monsoon Wedding
• 2001: Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film: Monsoon Wedding
• 2002: BAFTA Film Award Best Film not in the English Language: Monsoon Wedding
• 2003: Chlotrudis Award for Best Director: Monsoon Wedding
• 2003: Golden Star, International Film Festival of Marrakech: Hysterical Blindness
• 2003: César Award for Best Film from the European Union: 11'9"01 September 11
• 2004: Golden Lion (Best Film), Venice Film Festival: Vanity Fair
• 2007: Gotham Award for Best Film: The Namesake

Further reading[link]

• Jigna Desai: Beyond Bollywood: The cultural politics of South Asian diasporic film. New York: Routledge, 2004, 280 pp. ill. ISBN 0-415-96684-1 (inb.) / ISBN 0-415-96685-X (hft.)
• Gita Rajan: Pliant and compliant: colonial Indian art and postcolonial cinema. Women. Oxford (Print), ISSN 0957-4042 ; 13(2002):1, pp. 48–69.
• Alpana Sharma: Body matters: the politics of provocation in Mira Nair's films. QRFV : Quarterly review of film and video, ISSN 1050-9208 ; 18(2001):1, pp. 91–103.
• Pratibha Parmar: Mira Nair: filmmaking in the streets of Bombay. Spare rib, ISSN 0306-7971; 198, 1989, pp. 28–29.
• Gwendolyn Audrey Foster: Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity. Carbondale, Ill. : Southern Illinois University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8093-2120-3
• John Kenneth Muir: Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair. Hal Leonard, 2006. ISBN 1-55783-649-3, ISBN 978-1-55783-649-6.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mira Nair

• Mira Nair Bibliography (via UC Media Resources Center Berkeley)
• SAWNET biography
• Biography
• Mira Nair at the Internet Movie Database
• Maisha Film Lab in Kampala, Uganda
• Video Interview on LX.TV
• A Conversation with Mira Nair - Harvard @ Home program
• featured profile of Mira Nair - on MirabaiFilms.com
• Video interview with The Namesake director on Sidewalks Entertainment
• Video: Mira Nair at the Asia Society, Dec. 10, 2009
• Mira Nair: A Life in Pictures, BAFTA event video
• The Fabulous Picture Show (part 1, part 2) - Master Class with Mira Nair at the Doha film festival, Al Jazeera English, Dec 2009

Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 2006
Born	(1950-09-18) 18 September 1950 (age 61) Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, India (now in Andhra Pradesh, India)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Javed Akhtar

Shabana Azmi (Hindi: शबाना आज़मी, Urdu: شبان� اعظمی; born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism.^[1][2] Regarded as one of the finest actresses in India, Azmi's performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praise and awards, which include a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress and several international honours.^[1][3] She has also received four Filmfare Awards.

Azmi has appeared in over 120 Hindi films in both mainstream and independent cinema, and since 1988 she has acted in several foreign projects. In addition to acting, Azmi is a social and women's rights activist, a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), and a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.^[4] She is married to Indian poet and screenwriter Javed Akhtar.^[5]

Early life and background[link]

Shabana Azmi was born in a Muslim family. Her parents are Kaifi Azmi (an Indian poet) and Shaukat Azmi (a veteran Indian People's Theatre Association stage actress),^[4] both of whom were members of the Communist Party of India. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer. Her parents had an active social life, and their home was always thriving with people and activities of the communist party. It was not unusual for her to wake up in the morning and find members of the communist party sleeping about, from a previous night's communist social that ran late. Early in childhood, the environment in her home was inculcated into her a respect for family ties, social and human values; and her parents always supported her to develop a passion for intellectual stimulation and growth.^[6][7][8]

Azmi did her schooling at the premier girl's school, Queen Mary School, Mumbai. She completed a graduate degree in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and followed it with a course in acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.^[4] She described the reason she decided to attend the film institute, saying, "I had had the privilege of watching Jaya Bhaduri in a (Diploma) film, Suman, and I was completely enchanted by her performance because it was unlike the other performances I had seen. I really marvelled at that and said, 'My god, if by going to the Film Institute I can achieve that, that's what I want to do.'" Azmi eventually topped the list of successful candidates of 1972.^[9]

Career[link]

Azmi graduated from the FTII in 1973 and went on to sign on Khwaja Ahmad Abbas' Faasla and began work on Kanti Lal Rathod's Parinay as well. Her first release, however, was Shyam Benegal's directorial debut Ankur (1974). Belonging to the arthouse genre of neo-realistic films, Ankur is based on a true story which occurred in Hyderabad. Azmi played Lakshmi, a married servant and villager who drifts into an affair with a college student who visits the countryside. Azmi was not the original choice for the film, and several leading actresses of that time refused to do it. The film went on to become a major critical success, and Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performances. Upperstall.com described her work in the film as "an outstanding psychologically penetrating performance very different from those seen normally till then in mainstream Hindi cinema", and famous independent filmmaker Satyajit Ray commented, "In Ankur she may not have fitted immediately into her rustic surroundings, but her poise and personality are never in doubt. In two high pitched scenes, she pulls out the stops to firmly establish herself as one of our finest dramatic actresses".^[10]

She went on to receive the National Film Award consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film Godmother (1999) earned her another National Film Award, taking her tally to five.

Azmi’s acting has been characterized by a real-life depiction of the roles played by her. In Mandi, she acted as a madam of a whorehouse. For this role, she put on weight and even chewed betel. Real life portrayals continued in almost all her movies. These included the role of a woman named Jamini resigned to her destiny in Khandhar, and a typical urban Indian wife, homemaker and mother in Masoom.

She also acted in experimental and parallel Indian cinema. Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire depicts her as a lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law. The on-screen depiction of lesbianism (perhaps the first in Indian cinema) drew severe protests and threats from many social groups as well as by the Indian authorities. Her role as Radha brought her international recognition with the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival and Jury Award for Best Actress at Outfest, Los Angeles.^[4]

Some of her notable films include Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975), Junoon (1978), Susman (1986), and Antarnaad (1992); Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi; Mrinal Sen’s Khandhar, Genesis, Ek Din Achanak; Saeed Mirza’s Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai; Sai Paranjpye’s Sparsh and Disha; Gautam Ghose’s Paar; Aparna Sen’s Picnic and Sati ; Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth; Vinay Shukla’s Godmother. Her other films include the commercially successful Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony, and Parvarish and Prakash Mehra’s Jwalamukhi. Azmi starred in Hollywood productions such as John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka (1988) and Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992).

Azmi debuted on the small screen in a soap opera titled Anupama. She portrayed a modern Indian woman who, while endorsing traditional Indian ethos and values, negotiated more freedom for herself. She had also participated in many stage plays, and notable among them include M. S. Sathyu’s Safed Kundali (1980), based on The Caucasian Chalk Circle; and Feroz Abbas Khan's Tumhari Amrita along with actor Farooq Sheikh, which ran for five years. She toured Singapore on an assignment with the Singapore Repertory Theatre Company, acting in Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll's House, which was directed by Rey Buono. Pointing out the differences in all these media, she once remarked that theatre was really the actor’s medium; the stage was actor’s space; cinema was the director’s medium; and television was a writer’s medium.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

In the initial stage of her career, she was linked to film director Shekhar Kapur.^{[citation needed]} She married Javed Akhtar, a lyricist, poet and Bollywood scriptwriter^[5] on 9 December 1984, making her a member of the Akhtar-Azmi film family.^[11] It was Akhtar’s second marriage, the first being with Bollywood scriptwriter, Honey Irani.^[12] Indian actresses Farah Naaz and Tabu are her nieces.

Social activism[link]

Shabana Azmi has been a committed social activist, active in supporting child survival and fighting AIDS and injustice in real life.^[13][14] Azmi has voiced her opinion on a variety of issues. Initially, her activism drew skepticism and was dubbed by some as a publicity gimmick. However, she proved her critics wrong and used her celebrity status to emerge as a high-profile social activist.

She had participated in several plays and demonstrations denouncing communalism. In 1989, along with Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer, she undertook a four-day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut. Among the social groups whose causes she has advocated are slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra, India). The 1993 Mumbai riots appalled her and she emerged as a forceful critic of religious extremism. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, she opposed the advice of the grand mufti of Jama Masjid calling upon the Muslims of India to join the people of Afghanistan in their fight by retorting that the leader go there alone.^[15]

She has campaigned against ostracism of victims of AIDS.^[13] A small film clip issued by the Government of India depicts an HIV positive child cuddled in her arms and saying: "She does not need your rejection, she needs your love". In a Bengali film named Meghla Aakash she played the role of a physician treating AIDS patients.

She has also given her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by the nonprofit organization TeachAIDS.^[16]

Since 1989, she has been a member of the National Integration Council headed by the Prime Minister of India; a member of National AIDS Commission (of India); and was nominated (in 1997) as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. In 1998, the United Nations Population Fund appointed her as its Goodwill Ambassador for India.^[13]

Selected filmography[link]

She has acted in more than one hundred Hindi films, both in the mainstream as well as in parallel cinema. Several of her films have received attention in the international arena, including at the Norwegian Film Institute, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Film Institute. She has appeared in a number of foreign films, most of which have won international acclaim, including John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka, Nicholas Klotz’s Bengali Night, Roland Joffe’s City of Joy, Channel 4’s Immaculate Conception, Blake Edwards' Son of the Pink Panther, and Ismail Merchant’s In Custody.

• Ankur (1974) - Laxmi
• Nishant (1976) - Sushila
• Fakira (1976) Geeta / Neeta C I D Police Inspector
• Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) - Khurshid
• Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) - Laxmi
• Junoon (1978) - Firdaus
• Swami (1978) -
• Sparsh (1980) - Kavita
• Arth (1982) - Mrs. Pooja Inder Malhotra
• Masoom (1983) - Indu D. Malhotra
• Mandi (1983) - Rukmini Bai
• Shart (1986)- Kiran Dutt
• The Bengali Night (1988) - Mrs. Sen
• Madame Sousatzka (1988) - Sushila
• City of Joy (1992) - Kamla Pal
• In Custody (1993) - Imtiaz Begum
• Son of the Pink Panther (1993) - Queen
• Fire (1996) - Radha
• Saaz (1997) - Bansidhar (Bansi) Vrundavan
• Side Streets (1998) - Mrs. Chandra Bipin Raj
• Earth (1998) - voice of older Lenny
• Godmother (1999) - Rambhi
• Makdee (2002) - Makdee
• Tehzeeb (2003) - Rukhsana Jamal
• Morning Raga (2004) - Swarnlatha
• 15 Park Avenue (2005) - Anjali "Anju" Mathur
• Waterborne (2005) - Heera Bhatti
• Umrao Jaan (2006) - Khannum Jaan
• Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) - Nahid
• Loins of Punjab Presents (2007) - Rita Kapoor
• Sorry Bhai! (2008) - Mother Gayatri
• It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010) - Mrs. Sethi

Awards and honors[link]

National Awards[link]

Azmi has received the National Film Award for Best Actress five times, making her the overall most-awarded actor in the function:^[4]

• 1975 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Ankur
• 1983 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Arth
• 1984 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Khandhar
• 1985 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Paar
• 1999 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Godmother

Filmfare Awards[link]

Winner:

• 1978 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Swami
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Arth
• 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Bhavna
• 2006 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award

Nominated:

• 1975 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Ankur
• 1981 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Thodisi Bewafaii
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Masoom
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Avtaar
• 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Mandi
• 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Sparsh
• 2003 - Filmfare Best Villain Award for Makdee
• 2004 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Tehzeeb

International awards[link]

• 1993: Best Actress award for Libaas in North Korea
• 1994: Best Actress award for Gautam Ghose’s Patang at the Taormina Arte Festival in Italy
• 1996: Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress for Fire at the Chicago International Film Festival^[4]
• 1996: Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, for Fire in L.A. Outfest^[4]

Other awards[link]

• Azmi won the award for Best Actress (Hindi) at the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards (BFJA) for Ankur in 1975, Paar in 1984, Ek Pal in 1987, and Godmother in 1999. She won the Best Supporting Actress (Hindi) award for Tehzeeb in 2003.^[17]
• 1998: Star Screen Award Best Supporting Actress for Mrityudand.
• 2004: Zee Cine Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role- Female for Tehzeeb.
• 2005: Star Screen Awards - Best Performance in an Indian Film in English for Morning Raga

Honours and recognitions[link]

• 1988: Awarded the Padma Shri from the Government of India.
• 1988: Yash Bhartiya Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for highlighting women’s issues in her work as an actress and activist.
• 1994: Rajiv Gandhi Award for "Excellence of Secularism"
• 1999: Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image, Significant Contribution to Indian Cinema.^[18]
• 2002: Martin Luther King Professorship award by the University of Michigan conferred on her in recognition of her contribution to arts, culture and society.
• 2006: Gandhi International Peace Award, awarded by Gandhi Foundation, London.^[19]
• 2007: She was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Art by Chancellor of the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire^[20]
• 2009: She was honoured with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award ^[21]
• 2012: Awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-88086-19-3) by Indra Gupta
• Holt, Julia; Phalke, Shubhra; Basic Skills Agency. Shabana Azmi. London : Basic Skills Agency, 1995. ISBN 1-85990-022-4.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shabana Azmi

• Shabana Azmi at the Internet Movie Database
• Shabana Azmi NGO in India
• One on One - Shabana Azmi - interview on Al Jazeera English (video, 25 mins)
• Time: Shabana Azmi
• Indian American Arts Council
• Article from the Village Voice
• EveryOne campaign brand ambassador: Shabana Azmi
• Shabana Azmi on Twitter

Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne in 2010
Born	Gabriel James Byrne (1950-05-12) May 12, 1950 (age 62) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, author
Years active	1978–present
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Spouse	Ellen Barkin (1988–1999)
Children	John Daniel Byrne (b. 1989) Romy Marion Byrne (b. 1992)

Gabriel James Byrne (born May 12, 1950) is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the spin-off show Bracken. He has now starred in over 35 feature films, such as The Usual Suspects, Miller's Crossing, Stigmata and End of Days, in addition to writing two. Byrne's producing credits include the Academy Award-nominated In the Name of the Father. More recently, he has received much critical acclaim for his role as Dr. Paul Weston in the HBO drama In Treatment.

Early life[link]

Byrne, the first of six children, was born in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland, the son of a cooper and soldier, Dan, and a hospital nurse from Galway, Eileen (née Gannon).^[1][2] He has four siblings: Donal, Thomas, Breda, and Margaret; another, Marian, died at a young age. Byrne was raised a strict Roman Catholic^[3][4] and educated in Ardscoil Éanna in Crumlin, where he later taught Spanish and History.^[5] About his early training to become a priest, he said in an interview, "I spent five years in the seminary and I suppose it was assumed that one had a vocation. I realised subsequently that I didn't."^{[citation needed]} He attended University College Dublin, where he studied archaeology and linguistics,^[6] becoming proficient in Irish. He played football in Dublin with the Stella Maris Football Club, in Drumcondra.

In January 2010, he spoke in an interview on The Meaning of Life about being sexually abused by priests during his childhood.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Career[link]

Byrne worked in archaeology when he left UCD. He maintained his love of his language, later writing the first television drama in Irish, Draíocht, on Ireland's national Irish-language television station, TG4, when it began broadcasting in 1996.

Before becoming an actor, Byrne had many jobs, including archaeologist, cook, and Spanish and History schoolteacher at Ardscoil Éanna in Crumlin, Dublin. He started acting at age 29,^[6] and began his career on stage with the Focus Theatre and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He later joined the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal National Theatre in London. Byrne came to prominence on the final season of the Irish television show The Riordans,^[6] subsequently starring in his own spin-off series, Bracken. His first play for television was Michael Feeney Callan's Love Is ... (RTE). He made his film debut in 1981, as King Uther Pendragon in John Boorman's King Arthur epic, Excalibur.^[6]

In 1983, he appeared with Richard Burton in the miniseries Wagner (1983), co-starring Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.^[11]

Byrne currently stars as therapist Dr. Paul Weston in the new, critically acclaimed HBO primetime weeknight series In Treatment. He was named as TV's "latest Dr. McDreamy" by the New York Times^[12] for this role, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2008. He also received his first Emmy Award nomination (Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series) for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad won.) that same year.

Upon his return to theatre in 2008, he appeared as King Arthur in Camelot with the New York Philharmonic from May 7 to May 10, following the footsteps of veteran actors Richard Burton and Richard Harris.

Byrne was cast in a film adaptation of Flann O'Brien's metafictional novel At Swim-Two-Birds, alongside Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy. Actor Brendan Gleeson was set to direct the film.^[13] In October 2009, however, Gleeson expressed fear that, should the Irish Film Board be abolished as planned by the Irish State, the production might fall through.^[14]

Byrne has just signed up to appear in the new movie by Oscar-winning director Costa Gavras; 'Le Capital'^[15] an adaptation of Stéphane Osmont’s novel of the same name.

Personal life[link]

Byrne, who retains his Irish citizenship, did not arrive in the United States until 1987, when he was 37. He had begun a relationship with actress Ellen Barkin, and had relocated to New York City to be with her. A year later, in 1988, Byrne married Barkin, with whom he has two children, John "Jack" Daniel (born 1989) and Romy Marion (born 1992). The couple separated amicably in 1993, and then divorced in 1999.

Byrne currently resides in Manhattan.

Byrne is also actively involved in various charities, in addition to being a human rights activist. In 2004, Byrne was appointed a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador. He became a patron of Croi (The West of Ireland Cardiology Foundation) in 1997 in response to the care given to his mother while she was a patient in a Galway hospital.

At the 5th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2007, Byrne was presented with the first of the newly created Volta awards, for lifetime achievement in acting. He also received the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society, of Trinity College, Dublin on February 20, 2007. In November of that same year, he was awarded an honorary degree by the National University of Ireland, Galway; the president of the University, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, said that this award is in recognition of the actor's "outstanding contribution to Irish and international film".^[16]

Although the actor is noted as a fiercely private person, he released a documentary for the 20th Galway Film Fleadh in the summer of 2008 called Stories from Home, an intimate portrait about his life.

Byrne mentioned in interviews and his 1995 autobiography, Pictures In My Head that he hates being called "brooding". He has been listed by People as one of the "Sexiest Men Alive". Entertainment Weekly has also dubbed Byrne as one of the hottest celebrities over the age of 50.^[17]

Filmography[link]

Stage[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Byrne holding his Herald Angel, an award given to him at the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Barton, Ruth, Acting Irish in Hollywood: from Fitzgerald to Farrell, Irish Academy Press, 2006, p. 163-179, ISBN 0-7165-3344-8

Grunert, Andrea, "La lumière derrière le masque: une approche du jeu de Gabriel Byrne", in: Penny Starfield (ed.) Masque et lumière, Corlet [France]2006, p. 222-229. ISBN 2-84706-122-3.

External links[link]

• Gabriel Byrne at the Internet Movie Database
• "Star Bio's: Gabriel Byrne". Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20070313110722/http://tribute.aol.ca/bio.asp?id=1037. 
• Gabriel Byrne's entry in Art of Amnesty
• JewReview.net Gabriel Byrne video interview on Jindabyne and In Treatment
• NPR Fresh Air: The Art of Listening Gabriel Byrne discusses his role on "In Treatment" (May 30, 2009)
• Gabriel Byrne tells of childhood sexual abuse at Guardian.co.uk
• ByrneHolics: Website devoted to actor and activist Gabriel Byrne

Marisa Tomei
Tomei at the premiere for the film War, Inc., April 2008
Born	(1964-12-04) December 4, 1964 (age 47) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1983–present

Marisa Tomei (/məˈrɪsə toʊˈmeɪ/; born December 4, 1964) is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987. After appearing in a few films, her breakthrough came in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Appearing in many films over the past fifteen years, her most commercially successful films to date are What Women Want (2000), Anger Management (2003), and Wild Hogs (2007).^[1] She received critical acclaim for her performances in Unhook the Stars (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and received subsequent Academy Award nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).^[2]

Life and career[link]

1964–83: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Tomei, an Italian American,^[3][4] was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia Adelaide "Addie" (née Bianchi), an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer.^[5][6] She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei.^[7] Tomei grew up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn.^[8] While there, she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to, and became drawn to acting as a career. At Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played the part of Hedy LaRue in a school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982, she attended Boston University for a year.^[7]

1984–2002: Breakthrough and critical success[link]

Tomei followed up As the World Turns, in 1986, with a role on the sitcom A Different World as Maggie Lauten during the first season. Her film debut was a minor role in the 1984 comedy film The Flamingo Kid, with Matt Dillon. Following several small films, her breakthrough comedic performance^[9] came in My Cousin Vinny (1992), where she received critical praise for her performance. Critic Vincent Canby wrote, "Ms. Tomei gives every indication of being a fine comedian, whether towering over Mr. Pesci and trying to look small, or arguing about a leaky faucet in terms that demonstrate her knowledge of plumbing. Mona Lisa is also a first-rate auto mechanic, which comes in handy in the untying of the knotted story."^[10] For her performance, Tomei was named Best Supporting Actress at the 1993 Academy Awards, prevailing over Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave and Judy Davis. American film critic Rex Reed created controversy (and a minor Hollywood myth)^[11][12][13] when he suggested that Jack Palance had announced the wrong name after opening the envelope.^[14][15] While this allegation was repeatedly disproved^[16][17] â€“ even the Academy officially denied it^[18] â€“ Tomei called the story "extremely hurtful." A Price Waterhouse accountant explained that if such an event had occurred, "we have an agreement with the Academy that one of us would step on stage, introduce ourselves, and say the presenter misspoke."^[19]

After her Oscar win, Tomei appeared as silent film star Mabel Normand in the film Chaplin, with her then-boyfriend Robert Downey Jr. as the title character. The following year she starred in the romantic drama Untamed Heart with Christian Slater where they won the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. Tomei had won the previous year for Best Breakthrough Performance for My Cousin Vinny. The following year Tomei appeared alongside Downey again in the romantic comedy Only You. She then appeared in Nick Cassavetes's Unhook the Stars opposite Gena Rowlands. Of Tomei's performance, The New York Times wrote, "Ms. Tomei is equally fine as Mildred's younger, hot-tempered neighbor, whose raw working-class feistiness and bluntly profane vocabulary initially repel the genteel older woman."^[20] She received her first Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor for her performance. In 1998, she received an American Comedy Award nomination for Funniest Supporting Actress for Tamara Jenkins's cult film Slums of Beverly Hills, in which she appeared alongside Natasha Lyonne and Alan Arkin. The independent film was well received by critics and the public.^[21] The New York Times writes, "Jenkins makes the most of an especially ingratiating cast, with Ms. Tomei very charming and funny as Rita"^[22] while another critic states Tomei is "spunky and sexy, . . . more subdued than she usually is."^[23] Tomei spent several years away from high-profile roles and major motion pictures in the late 1990s, before rising again to prominence in the early 2000s.^[24] Tomei appeared in the 2000 film What Women Want with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, which was a commercial success, and had a supporting role in the romantic comedy Someone Like You with Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd.

In 2001, Tomei appeared in Todd Field's Best Picture nominee In the Bedroom opposite Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, earning several awards including a ShoWest Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2002. Variety wrote, "Tomei is winning in what is surely her most naturalistic and unaffected performance,"^[25] while The New York Times writer Stephen Holden exclaimed, "Ms. Tomei's ruined, sorrowful Natalie is easily her finest screen role."^[26] In the Bedroom earned Tomei a second Academy Award nomination and her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Tomei also shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. In 2002 she appeared in the Bollywood-inspired film The Guru and voiced the role of Bree Blackburn, the main antagonist in the animated feature film The Wild Thornberrys Movie.

During the latter part of the 1990s Tomei made several television appearances. In 1996, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Seinfeld, playing herself in the two-part episode "The Cadillac." In the episode, George Constanza attempts to get a date with her through a friend of Elaine Benes. She also made an appearance on The Simpsons as movie star Sara Sloane, who falls in love with Ned Flanders. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Mohr wrote in his book Gasping for Airtime that, as guest host in October 1994, Tomei insisted that a proposed sketch, "Good Morning Brooklyn," not be used because she did not like the idea of being stereotyped; that stand displeased the writers and performers, given the show's penchant for satirizing celebrities.^[27]

2003–present[link]

In 2003, Tomei appeared in one of her biggest commercial hits, Anger Management. The following year, she appeared in the film Alfie based on the 1966 British film of the same name, opposite Jude Law. In 2005, she was featured in an ad campaign for Hanes with the slogan "Look who we've got our Hanes on now", featuring various other celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Damon Wayans, Matthew Perry and, on Spanish-language advertising, Aracely Arámbula and Pablo Montero. In 2006, Tomei had a recurring role on Rescue Me, playing Johnny Gavin's ex-wife Angie. She won a Gracie Allen Award for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the four episodes she appeared in. The following year she appeared in the comedy Wild Hogs alongside John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence. The film was the 13th highest-grossing movie of 2007 ($168,273,550 domestic box office). She also starred in the Sidney Lumet-directed Before the Devil Knows You're Dead opposite co-stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. The film was released to critical acclaim.

Tomei at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009

In 2008, Tomei played Cassidy/Pam, a struggling stripper in the Darren Aronofsky independent film The Wrestler opposite Mickey Rourke. She appeared in several nude scenes performing dance numbers in the film, on working with Tomei, director Aronofsky said, "This role shows how courageous and brave Marisa is. And ultimately she's really sexy. We knew nudity was a big part of the picture, and she wanted to be that exposed and vulnerable."^[28] Numerous critics heralded this performance as a standout in her career, The Hollywood Reporter states, "Tomei delivers one of her most arresting performances, again without any trace of vanity."^[29] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe writes, "Tomei gives a brave and scrupulously honest performance, one that's most naked when Pam has her clothes on."^[30] Variety exclaimed, "Tomei is in top, emotionally forthright form as she charts a life passage similar to Ram's."^[31] For her performance she was nominated for her first BAFTA, second Golden Globe and third Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Tomei was included at #18 on the FHM annual list of "100 Sexiest Females in the world" in 2009.^[32] The following year she appeared in two films, the first a comedy-drama, Cyrus and a cameo in the comedy film, Grown Ups. Tomei hosted the 2011 Scientific and Technical Awards, which was followed by an appearance at the 83rd Academy Awards.^[33] She starred alongside Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Phillippe in the mystery suspense film, The Lincoln Lawyer. She also appeared in Salvation Boulevard with Jennifer Connelly, Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Tomei's 2011 films included Crazy, Stupid, Love., with Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone, and the George Clooney film, The Ides of March, with Clooney, Ryan Gosling, and Paul Giamatti. She is in talks to star alongside Sarah Jessica Parker in the indie comedy, Married and Cheating.^[34] In an interview, Lady Gaga stated that she would want Tomei to portray her in a film about the singer, Tomei responded saying, "I was thrilled when I heard. I love her. I love her music. And she's a smart businesswoman. So I was so touched, really. I think it's incredible that she likes my work and that she'd think of me."^[35]

Tomei was featured in the second episode of the third season on NBC's, Who Do You Think You Are?, on February 10, 2012. In the episode, she travelled to the Tuscany region of Italy and the island of Elba to uncover the truth about the 100-year-old murder of her great-grandfather, Francesco Leopoldo Bianchi, on her mother's side of the family.^[36]

Theater[link]

Tomei has also done substantial work in the theater, including taking lead roles on Broadway in Wait Until Dark (1998) and Oscar Wilde's Salomé (2003) alongside Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest as well as many Off-Broadway plays such as Tony Kushner's Slavs! (1994).

Personal life[link]

Tomei is the recipient of an honorary degree from Boston University.^[37]

Awards[link]

Academy Award[link]

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Wins

• 1992: My Cousin Vinny

Nominations

• 2001: In the Bedroom
• 2008: The Wrestler

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marisa Tomei

• Marisa Tomei at the Internet Movie Database
• Marisa Tomei at the Internet Broadway Database
• Marisa Tomei at the Internet Off-Broadway Database