Jerry Zaks

Jerry Zaks

Born

Occupation

Director

Awards won
Tony Awards
Best Direction of a Play 1986 The House of Blue Leaves 1989 Lend Me a Tenor 1991 Six Degrees of Separation Best Direction of a Musical 1992 Guys and Dolls

Jerry Zaks (born September 7, 1946) is an German-American multiple award-winning stage- and television director, and actor.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, the son of Holocaust survivors, Zaks graduated from Dartmouth College and received a Master of Fine Arts from Smith College. He made his Broadway acting debut in the original production of Grease and also appeared in Tintypes. He made his directing debut in 1981 with the off-Broadway production of Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy.

Zaks served as Resident Director at Lincoln Center from 1986 -1990 and is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. In addition to his Tony and Drama Desk Awards, he has won two Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, and an NAACP Image Award nomination for his national tour of The Tap Dance Kid. He received the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater in 1994 and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth College in 1999.

As an actor, Zaks' screen credits include Outrageous Fortune, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Husbands and Wives. On television he has appeared in M*A*S*H and The Edge of Night and directed episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Hope and Faith, and Two and a Half Men, among others. He also directed the feature film Marvin's Room.

[edit] Stage productions

1986 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - The Marriage of Bette & Boo and The House of Blue Leaves
1986 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play - The House of Blue Leaves
1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - Lend Me a Tenor
1989 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play - Lend Me a Tenor
1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - Six Degrees of Separation
1991 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play - Six Degrees of Separation
1992 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - Guys and Dolls
1992 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Guys and Dolls

1980 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Tintypes
1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - Anything Goes
1988 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Anything Goes
1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - Assassins
1995 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - Smokey Joe's Cafe
1996 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
2006 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play

Ellis Rabb (1976) · Gordon Davidson (1977) · Melvin Bernhardt (1978) · Jack Hofsiss (1979) · Vivian Matalon (1980) · Peter Hall (1981) · Trevor Nunn / John Caird (1982) · Gene Saks (1983) · Mike Nichols (1984) · Gene Saks (1985) · Jerry Zaks (1986) · Lloyd Richards (1987) · John Dexter (1988) · Jerry Zaks (1989) · Frank Galati (1990) · Jerry Zaks (1991) · Mike Nichols (1992) · George C. Wolfe (1993) · Stephen Daldry (1994) · Gerald Gutierrez (1995) · Gerald Gutierrez (1996) · Anthony Page (1997) · Garry Hynes (1998) · Robert Falls (1999) · Michael Blakemore (2000)

Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical

Michael Bennett (1976) · Gene Saks (1977) · Richard Maltby, Jr. (1978) · Harold Prince (1979) · Harold Prince (1980) · Wilford Leach (1981) · Tommy Tune (1982) · Trevor Nunn (1983) · Arthur Laurents (1984) · Des McAnuff (1985) · Wilford Leach (1986) · Trevor Nunn / John Caird (1987) · Harold Prince (1988) · Jerome Robbins (1989) · Tommy Tune (1990) · Tommy Tune (1991) · Jerry Zaks (1992) · Des McAnuff (1993) · Nicholas Hytner (1994) · Harold Prince (1995) · George C. Wolfe (1996) · Walter Bobbie (1997) · Julie Taymor (1998) · Matthew Bourne (1999) · Michael Blakemore (2000)

Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)