Little Known Facts With Ilana Levine

Lauren is an acclaimed singer-songwriter who reaches over 90,000 listeners monthly. As an actor, she recently made her Broadway debut as Brooke Lohst in the viral sensation Be More Chill while enjoying her first month-long residency at the legendary Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. As an actor, select regional and New York credits also include: Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (Pittsburgh Public Theater), Brooke Lohst in Be More Chill (Two River Theater and Signature Theatre), Brigid in The Humans (St. Louis Rep), Amy in Company (Barrington Stage), Beatsville (Asolo Rep), The Jonathan Larson Project (Feinstein’s/54 Below), Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along (Sharon Playhouse), Pregnancy Pact (Weston Playhouse), and Miss Asp in Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theater). Lauren is an alumnus of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project, and released her debut EP, Never Really Done With You, in July 2016. In 2015, her children’s musical, The Meanest Birthday Girl (book/lyrics), was part of the New Yor

Marisa Tomei continues to bridge the gap between rich, dramatic performances and smart, comedic turns. Marisa won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny. Tomei subsequently earned Academy Awards nominations for her performances in In the Bedroomand The Wrestler.  Marisa recently wrapped her run as “Serafina Delle Rose” in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the acclaimed Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which marked Marisa’s return to the Broadway stage. She also recently wrapped production on Netflix’s action film, Sweet Girl, where she will appear alongside Jason Mamoa. Next, she will star alongside Pete Davidson in Universal Pictures’ The King of Staten Island, a comedy film from Judd Apatow. The film will premiere as the opening night film at 2020 SXSW, before releasing nationwide on June 19, 2020. Recently, Marisa returned to the silver screen for ABC’s live special of Live In Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All In The F

Ariana DeBose is a Tony-nominated actress known for her varying roles on stage as well as on screen. DeBose is perhaps best known for her role as “Disco Donna” in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which earned her a 2018 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. For the same role, she was nominated for a Drama League Award for “Distinguished Performance” and won a Chita Rivera Award for “Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show.”  DeBose recently wrapped production on Ryan Murphy's Netflix adaptation of the hit-Broadway musical THE PROM, where she stars as Alyssa alongside Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and James Corden. In December, DeBose will be seen in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated reimagining of the Academy Award-winning musical WEST SIDE STORY. DeBose was chosen from thousands of actresses to portray the iconic role of Anita, which earned Rita Moreno an Oscar in 1962.  In 2015, DeBose appeared alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the groundbreaking, Tony-winning musical Hamilton

Annie Golden considers herself the illegitimate child of the legitimate theatre, having been discovered on the Bowery fronting a rock band, and cast by Milos Forman as Jeannie in Hair, the 1978 film. Annie was an original cast member for five seasons of the award-winning Netflix series ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK; silence is golden, and so is Annie’s character, Norma Romano! She will also be seen on Season Three of HBO’s HIGH MAINTENANCE in Spring 2019 as “Bambie,” which was written for her by the show’s creators. She can also be seen in the upcoming feature film BITE ME. On Broadway and off, she was last seen in Violet, and created the role of Georgie Bukatinsky in The Full Monty; Sondheim’s original Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, the off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Jerry Zaks; Ah! Wilderness with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards; On The Town; and Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey.  Her other numerous film credits include Touched With Fire opposite Katie Holmes; Twelve Monkeys; Baby B

Nik Walker is an actor, cinephile, theme park nerd and collector of talented frenemies. Currently leading the Broadway cast of Ain’t Too Proud (after 3 years as Aaron Burr in the Broadway and touring companies of Hamilton), he’s also been seen in Motown the Musical, Peter and the Starcatcher, on TV in Law and Order SVU, and regionally at La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe and The Denver Center, to name a few. A playwright, he is the co-writer of Company One’s ARTiculation, and the creator of The Bloody Boston Trilogy. He is cohost of the talk show The Chaos Twins, hosted by BroadwayWorld, and his movie podcast, Little Justice, is streaming with the Broadway Podcast Network. @nikkywalks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mira Katherine Sorvino was born in Manhattan. She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino. Her father's family were Italian immigrants. The young Sorvino was intelligent, an avid reader and an exceptional scholar. Her father discouraged her from becoming an actor, as he knew how the industry often chews up young stars. She attended Harvard, majoring in Chinese, graduating magna cum laude in 1989, largely on the strength of her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and researched during the year spent in Beijing, which helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese. However, she showed interest in a career in acting from an early age, and moved to New York City to try her hand in the City's film industry, waitressing, auditioning and working at the Tribeca production company of Robert De Niro. She succeeded in getting a little television work in the early 1990s, but got her first film job in the independent gang

Nicole Blaine’s first stand-up special with Comedy Dynamics, Life's A Bit, is available on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and a variety of cable outlets. She is thrilled to embark on a midwest tour this summer for Scary Mommy Live, and you can catch her on the upcoming season 3 of Laugh After Dark on Amazon Prime. Nicole has been seen on NBC’s The Today Show, E’s That Morning Show, SFSketchfest, Big Sky Comedy Festival, The International FringeNYC Festival, Laughing Skull Comedy Festival and HBO’s Women in Comedy Festival. Nicole and her producing partner/husband/assistant, Mickey Blaine, executive produced and directed the stand-up special, Burning the Light, which debuted on HBO in 2016. You can see Nicole perform every Monday night at the Kibitz Comedy Show at Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles. LA Weekly describes her as “a remarkable performer with brains, beauty and rich comic delivery,” and her honest (and crass) observations showcase her “humor, passion, dazzling charm and a naturalness that many performers,

Lena Hall is an American actress, singer and songwriter best known for her work on Broadway originating the role of Nicola in Kinky Boots, and her Tony Award-winning performance as Yitzhak in the 2014 revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which also earned her a Grammy nomination for the musical's official album. She made history by becoming the first person to play both Hedwig and Yitzhak in the same production during the national tour of the musical in 2016. Her other Broadway credits include Cats, 42nd Street, Dracula, the Musical and Tarzan, the Musical. Hall has also starred in Off-Broadway productions such as Radiant Baby, Bedbugs!!!, Rooms: A Rock Romance, The Toxic Avenger, Prometheus Bound, Chix6, and the 2017 original play How to Transcend a Happy Marriage. Hall has appeared in films such as Sex and the City (2008), The Graduates (2008), Born from the Foot (2009), The Big Gay Musical (2009), and Becks (2017), for which she received widespread critical acclaim. She has also appeared on TV shows like

Taylor Trensch was most recently seen in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway almost directly after taking over the title role in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. Other credits include the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, in which he played Barnaby Tucker. Other Broadway credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Matilda and Wicked. He also was featured in the off-Broadway productions of Bare and Rent and on the first national tour of Spring Awakening. He's been seen in world premieres at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dallas Theater Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Barrington Stage. On screen, he's been seen in Nickelodeon’s Nella the Princess Knight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Noah Galvin - Film: Booksmart (Dir Olivia Wilde), Assassination Nation (Dir Sam Levinson). TV: "The Real O'Neals" (ABC). Broadway: Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen. Off-Broadway: MCC, NYTW, Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard, Signature, Barrow Street, Rattlestick, and more. Regional: Huntington, Bay Street Theatre, Goodspeed, and more. Tours: Les Miserables (3rd National). Audiobooks: "Perks of Being a Wallflower", "What if it's Us", and others. 2019 Audie Award Nominee.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

REBECCA NAOMI JONES is an Americanactress and singer best known for her performances in the Broadway rock musicals Passing Strange, American Idiot, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.Jones was born in New York City, New York, to a musician father. Her mother is Jewish and her father is African-American. Jones performed in the children's chorus of the Metropolitan Opera as a youth and graduated from the Berkeley Carroll School in 1999. "I did theatre all throughout middle school and high school and was really into it, the same with singing," she said. Jones received her BFA in drama from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and appeared in the national tours of Rent and Caroline, or Change.In 2007 Jones made her Off-Broadway debut in Passing Strange, which transferred to Broadway on February 28, 2008. She created the role of Whatsername in the Green Day rock opera American Idiot, which opened on Broadway on April 20, 2010.[1]Paper magazine said of Jones, "She's carved out a nice niche for herself as the girl to c

Erika most recently starred as Cady in Mean Girls on broadway. She has also been seen as Fantine in the recent Broadway revival of Les Miserables, Kim Ravenal in PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center: Show Boat and Beth in Signature Theatre’s world premiere of Kathleen Marshall/Sheryl Crow’ musical, Diner. She was featured opposite Tyne Daly in York Theatre Company’s staging of Jerry Herman’s Dear World and has also starred as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Sophie in Mamma Mia! at PCLO. She is the recipient of Alan Eisenberg Actors’ Equity Award and graduate of University of Michigan BFA Musical Theater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TIMOTHY BUSFIELD is a Producer, Writer, Director and Emmy Award winning actor with over 650 professional credits. As a director, his most recent film Guest Artist, written by and starring Jeff Daniels, is scheduled to be released internationally in July of 2020. The film has won many awards since its premiere at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, including Best Director at the New York Independent Film Festival. As an actor he has been a series regular or recurring character on 20 television series including the currently running “For Life”, “Almost Family”, “thirtysomething,” “The West Wing,” “Entourage,” “Designated Survivor,” “Sleepy Hollow,” Secrets and Lies,” “ED,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “The Byrds of Paradise,” “Champs,” “Family Ties,” “Without A Trace,” “The Paper Chase,” “Reggie,” “All My Children”, “One Dollar”. He recently appeared in the mini-series “The Loudest Voice”. Mr. Busfield has appeared in over 40 television movies and feature films, including Fi

Multiple Emmy award-winning and Grammy Award- nominated Wayne Brady has made his mark on stage and screen as an actor, singer, dancer, improviser, songwriter and television personality.  In December 2019, Brady was named the winner of season two of “The Masked Singer,” arguably the biggest performance competition show in the world. His musical artistry won over the judges and audiences all across the country. On the heels of his win, Brady dropped a brand-new original single, entitled “Flirtin’ w/ Forever,” which quickly climbed the streaming charts, as well as an accompanying music video. Long an accomplished singer and performer, Brady’s debut album was released in September 2008, with his version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" earning him a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.   Brady is known across America as host of the iconic CBS game show, “Let’s Make a Deal,” which has earned him two Daytime Emmy Awards – Outstanding Game Show Host and Outstanding O

Brogan Ganley has been teaching meditation for over a decade. She has worked in hospitals in oncology and general wards, with patients and staff, in public and private schools with teachers and children, office/corporate environments, community centers and in private practice. Brogan has seen first hand how the modalities she uses can profoundly change people’s lives and this keeps her incredibly passionate about the work she does.   After years of study in India, Nepal, New Zealand, UK and the US, she began teaching Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga in 2007, became a Reiki Master in 2012, and Urban Zen Integrative Therapist in 2012.  Brogan grew up in very rural New Zealand, where nature and the landscape played a huge role. Taking care of your own health and healing with the aid of nature and community was simply the way it was done.  Brogan and her husband  have two children  and have lived in Brooklyn for 14 years. They have 40 acres of wooded land in upstate New York, completely off-grid, solar and hydro

George Salazar is best known for originating the role of "Michael Mell" in Be More Chill (coming to the Signature off-Broadway this summer) and for his Drama Desk-nominated performance in off-Broadway's The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.  Most recently starred in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Little Shop of Horrors. He was previously seen off-Broadway in Keen Company's Drama Desk-nominated revival of tick, tick... BOOM! and in David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's hit off-Broadway immersive musical, Here Lies Love. George made his Broadway debut singing "Light of the World" in the 2011 Revival of Godspell and toured with the second national company of Spring Awakening prior to that. Regional credits include the world premiere of Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz's Be More Chill, the world premiere of Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin, and Jason "SweetTooth" Williams' Broadway Bounty Hunter, the world premiere of Raging Skillet, and "Chip Tolentino" in ...Putnam County Spelling Bee. He was also a cast member of the 1

A special episode of Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine On March 12th, 2020 Broadway shows and performances all over the United States came to an immediate halt but the voices of all the artists are going strong while waiting for shows to reopen or mourning the shows that will not be able to come back. Listen to Ilana and her friends Joe Iconis, Kristin Chenoweth, Judy Kuhn, Beth Malone, Kathryn Gallagher and Jonathan Marc Sherman tell their tales of shows ending abruptly and what that means to them and the community at large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elizabeth Stanley is a Drama Desk Award nominee, and widely recognized stage and screen actress.  She can currently be seen starring as Mary Jane Healy in Jagged Little Pill featuring the beloved music of Alanis Morissette, a book by Diablo Cody, orchestrations by Tom Kitt, and directed by Diane Paulus. Stanley originated the role in its World Premiere at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater. In the show’s Broadway bow, Variety said that she portrayed Mary Jane with “with infinite compassion in a stunning performance.”  She originated the roles of Dyanne in Million Dollar Quartet and Allison in Cry-Baby. Additional Broadway credits include the revival of On the Town (Drama Desk Nomination) and the Tony Award-Winning revival of Company. She also appeared in the First National Tours of The Bridges of Madison County and Xanadu.  On television, Stanley can be seen in “NOS4A2” (upcoming), “FBI,” “The Get Down”, “The Affair,” “Black Box,” “Made in Jersey,” “Fringe,” “The Chappelle Show,” and “PBS Great Performances

John Slattery is an American actor and director. He is best known for his role as Roger Sterling in the AMC drama series Mad Men. He has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and two Critics' Choice Television Awards for AMC's series Mad Men. He was also part of the Mad Men ensemble cast that won two SAG Awards. In 2013, Slattery directed his first feature film, God's Pocket, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. He is currently on the HBO series Veep. Apart from his role on Mad Men, Slattery is also known for roles on Homefront; the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon; the HBO series K Street; guest appearances on Will & Grace; Judging Amy; Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives. Other films include Mona Lisa Smile, Flags of our Fathers, Charlie Wilson's War and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2015, Slattery portrayed journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. in the Academy Award winning film Spotlight, and also appeared in the Netflix comedy series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, for

Zachary Quinto hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Carnegie Mellon where he received a BFA in Acting.   In 2007 he was cast as Sylar on the hit NBC series Heroes. That same year, he was cast as Spock in the JJ Abrams directed reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He starred in the first season of American Horror Story in 2011, and won a Critic’s Choice Award and Emmy Award nomination for his portrayal on American Horror Story: Asylum.  Quinto appeared in the 2010 Signature revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, for which he won a Theater World Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. He made his Broadway debut in the 2013 Tony Award winning production of the Glass Menagerie. He was also seen in MCC’s production of Noah Haidle's Smokefall and in the Joe Mantello directed revival of The Boys in the Band. Quinto began his production company Before the Door Pictures in 2008 and produced such films as Margin Call, All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year, and Aardvark. Quinto hosts the unscripted show In S