Little Known Facts With Ilana Levine

Classically trained actor Nicholas Podany is quickly making a name for himself in the world of entertainment. Nicholas started his career on Broadway in the wildly successful play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child as Albus Potter. Nicholas will next be seen in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Hello Tomorrow! alongside Billy Crudup, Hank Azaria and Allison Pill. The series, which is set in a retro-future world, centers around a group of traveling salesmen hawking lunar timeshares. It will premiere in February of 2023.His other television credits include: the CW’s Hart of Dixie and Netflix’s Archive 81. Nicholas is also a singer songwriter, who served as a singer/bassist for the rock band Across Coves. The band has embarked on many tours across the country, opening for bands such as Maroon 5. Nicholas has also released four solo songs, including “Telling Myself” which was released in February 2020.Nicholas is a Juilliard graduate who currently resides in New York City.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc

Jennifer Simard is a Tony Award, four-time Drama Desk Award, three-time Drama League Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominee. Broadway credits include: Company (Sarah); Mean Girls (Adult Woman); Disaster! (Sister Mary Downey, Tony nomination); Hello, Dolly! (Ernestina); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (opposite Mo Rocca); and the companies of Sister Act and Shrek the Musical. Off-Broadway credits include the original companies of Forbidden Broadway: SVU; The Thing About Men; and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Film credits include The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Wish You Were Dead and Sisters. Television credits include: "Girls5Eva," “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “The King of Queens”, and “Younger.” Jennifer can be seen playing the role of 'Patsy' in Ray Romano's upcoming Feature Film directorial debut dramedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tamsen Fadal is known as a primetime evening news anchor in New York City and the host of a nationally syndicated entertainment show, and while reporting is her profession, she has won 13 Emmy awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Liz Garbus is one of America’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers. She has received two Academy Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards and a Grammy nomination for her body of work, which includes “Harry & Meghan”; “The Farm: Angola, USA”; “What Happened, Miss Simone?”; “Bobby Fischer Against the World”; “Nothing Left Unsaid”; “The Fourth Estate”; “All In: The Fight for Democracy”; and “Becoming Cousteau” among others. Her scripted feature debut, “Lost Girls,” premiered at Sundance in January 2020. Since then, she’s continued her foray into the scripted world by directing the season 4 finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which earned her an Emmy nomination. In 2019, Garbus co-founded, alongside her Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning husband, Dan Cogan, Story Syndicate, a premium film and television production company that provides a home for talented filmmakers, producers, journalists, thinkers and artists to create innovative, ambitious and elevated visual content. Learn more abou

Jenny Gersten serves as Line Producer for Beetlejuice on Broadway and National Tour, Executive Producer for the musical Born for This, Producer of Musical Theater for New York City Center, and Interim Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She sometimes produces commercially, including the award -winning Off Broadway “pie shop” production of Sweeney Todd. She works with Jessica Hecht on The Campfire Project, an arts program that primarily serves Syrian and Ukrainian refugees overseas. Previously, Jenny served as Executive Director of Friends of the High Line and as the Associate Producer of The Public Theater in New York City. At sea, she is the Creative Producer of Virgin Voyages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award winning lyricist, director, writer, and conceiver, Scott Wittman co-wrote the lyrics for the hit musical Hairspray (Tony, Grammy, Olivier Award winner) with creative partner Marc Shaiman. Wittman also served as an executive producer on the hit film starring John Travolta.  Scott was nominated for a Golden Globe, Grammy, and two Emmy Awards for the original songs on NBC’s musical drama Smash. While working on the show, he co-wrote songs for Jennifer Hudson, Uma Thurman, Bernadette Peters, and Liza Minnelli. Shaiman and Wittman’s original score for the Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell was released by Sony Records.  Scott & Marc’s Broadway writing credits include Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, which Scott also directed, Catch Me If You Can (Tony nom. for Best Musical), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway and the West End.  Scott has created and directed two Broadway shows, three studio recordings, and three sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts for Patti LuPone. He has cre

Michael Canzoniero is an award winning writer/director working out of his film studio MCM Creative in midtown Manhattan. Born in the Bronx, and raised on the east end of Long Island, Michael grew up obsessed with making movies alongside his cousin Marco Ricci. After attending the University of Notre Dame, where he had his first taste of Hollywood working as a production assistant on the iconic sports movie “Rudy”, Canzoniero was accepted to NYU Graduate Film, alma mater of his directing hero Martin Scorsese. But it was his apprenticeship of maverick indie filmmaker Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) that he credits as the formative piece in learning to make his own highly personal, independent films. After Canzoniero’s thesis film “Pishadoo” was awarded the Princess Grace award for the nation’s best student film, Michael and his cousin Marco co-wrote and co-directed the popular 2009 SXSW comedy “The Marconi Bros.”. He followed this with several more comedic indie films starring his Tony-winning f

Quentin Plair was recently seen in the Peabody Award-winning Showtime series The Good Lord Bird, and a lead role on Roswell, New Mexico, Quentin will star this November 22nd in the Hulu Limited series, Welcome to Chippendales, opposite Kumail Nanjiani. Quentin trained rigorously to dance for this breakout role as ‘Otis,’ the first and sole Black dancer at Chippendale’s at its inception. Otis is taken under the wing of self-made founder Steve Banjeree (Nanjiani) in this fictional crime series (based on true events). Below is the Vanity Fair first look image of Quentin in the role and here is the teaser trailer. Quentin will then star opposite Kathryn Hahn in the Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things (early 2023) based on author Cheryl Strayed’s NYT bestseller and helmed by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Productions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Micayla Brewster is a freelance Social Media Manager who oversees the digital presence of brands within the world of Arts & Culture. Past and current clients range from museums to musicals, books to bands, podcasts to performers, and films to forums on advocacy, to name a few.Formerly, she was an Account Manager at Marathon Digital, a social media agency that represents Broadway shows and live entertainment clients in NYC and around the world. While there, she led innovative social media campaigns for shows such as HAMILTON, Hadestown, Be More Chill, and Freestyle Love Supreme, among others.Previously, she has worked at media and entertainment companies such as theSkimm and Paramount Pictures. She is deeply passionate about the strategy behind creative digital marketing campaigns, as well as re-watching The Office. @MicaylaBrewster, www.MicaylaBrewster.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah Ruhl is a playwright . Her plays include- How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize). Other plays include For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; Stage Kiss; Dear Elizabeth; Passion Play, a cycle (PEN American Award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced around the country and internationally, translated into fourteen languages. Her books include Smile, a memoir; 100 Essays I Don’t have Time to Write and Love Poems in Quarantine. Opera: Libretto for Eurydice (Metropolitan Opera, composer Matthew Aucoin). Awards: MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, Whiting Writers’ Award, MacArthur Fellowship, Lily Award, PEN Center Award for a

Julie Boardman is an entrepreneur and Tony Award-winning producer. She recently conceived and produced I'm Still Here, a 90th anniversary celebration for the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, featuring archival materials from the Theatre on Film and Tape archive, interviews with Broadway legends and emerging creatives and reimagined musical numbers with a cast of over 100 artists. In fall 2020 she produced In Our America: A Concert for the Soul of the Nation and Artists for Change. She is currently a co-producer on the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. Other Broadway credits include: An American in Paris (Tony nomination), Carousel (Tony nomination), Company (Tony Award), Dames at Sea, Head Over Heels, Hughie, Indecent (Tony nomination), and The Inheritance (Tony Award). Tours: An American in Paris, Dreamgirls, Peter and the Starcatcher. West End: An American in Paris (Olivier nomination), Academy Award winner Florian Zeller's The Son. Julie is a Tony voter and

Colin Donnell is an actor and musician who will next be seen as the lead in Peacock’s “Irreverent,” which premieres November 30, 2022. He is well known to television audiences for his roles on NBC’s hugely popular franchise “Chicago Med,” the CW series “Arrow,” and as Scotty Lockhart on the Showtime “The Affair.” He is also known for his Broadway performances in Violet, Anything Goes, and Jersey Boys, as well as the Regional and Off-Broadway productions of Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Merrily We Roll Along, Love's Labours Lost, among many others. In 2020, Donnell and his band The Nineteen Twenty released their debut album Chaos + Cocktails.  Patti Murin is an accomplished stage and television actress who will next be seen in the upcoming Hallmark film In Merry Measure which will be released on November 11, 2022. Murin is well known for her critically acclaimed Broadway performances, which include originating the role of ‘Princess Anna’ in Disney’s Frozen, the titular role in Lysistrata Jones, her Broadway debut in Xan

Casey Likes made his Broadway debut in Almost Famous The Musical as ‘William Miller' starring alongside Solea Pfeiffer and Chris Wood. Created and written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Jeremy Herrin, this adaptation from the 2000 film chronicles an adolescent's experience touring with an up-and-coming band when given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone. He will next be seen as 'Gene Simmons' in the Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Goldthat will be released on March 31, 2023 and as 'Richie Shepard,' the leading role in MGM's feature Dark Harvest. Previous film credits include Everything Must Go, where he portrayed a young Will Ferrell. TV credits include the recent Crypt TV and Facebook Watch series The Birch, as well as National Geographic's American Blackout. As a filmmaker, he has won awards for the direction of his films Seriously and How to Romance, including the top prize in the Arizona Student Film Festival. His latest two self-produced films Thespians and I Got You can be seen on YouTube now, A

Painter and art teacher Sara Woster founded The Painting School in Brooklyn, NY in an effort to share her passion for painting with her community. Woster shows her artwork internationally and has illustrated several children’s books. Painting Can Save Your Life: How and Why We Paint from Penguin Random House / TarcherPerigee is Woster's how to/memoir dedicated to encouraging more people to try this transformative art. She lives with her family in Brooklyn and the Catskills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An actress and filmmaker, Jennifer Westfeldt is perhaps best known for writing, producing and starring in the indie films Kissing Jessica Stein (Indie Spirit Nomination, Golden Satellite Award, GLAAD Media Award, multiple Audience Awards), Ira & Abby (Best Actress/HBO Comedy Festival, multiple Audience Awards), and Friends with Kids (Top Ten Films of 2012, New York Magazine, NPR), which also marked her directorial debut. Her television credits include Younger,This Is Us, Girls, 24, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Notes from the Underbelly, and Children’s Hospital, among others.  Jennifer made her Broadway debut opposite Donna Murphy in Wonderful Town, directed by Kathleen Marshall, for which she received a Tony nomination, a Theater World Award and a Drama League Award. Other notable stage work includes the world premieres of Scott Z. Burns’ The Library at the Public Theater, directed by Stephen Soderbergh; Nell Benjamin’s The Explorer’s Club at Manhattan Theater Club; Nicky Silver’s Too Much Sun opposite L

Saidah Arrika Ekulona is an award-winning theatre, television and film actress. She's originated roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres and international theatres, and originated the role of Mama Nadi in the Pulitzer Prize winning play RUINED, for which she won an Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Jeff Award, Audelco Award and the Black Theatre Alliance Award.  She's currently shooting a Series Regular role as Ebunoluwa on BOB LOVES ABISHOLA, can also be seen as Toni Chapman in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, and has been a recurring featured Guest Star on SNOWFALL, BETTER CALL SAUL, BULL, KEVIN CAN WAIT, IMPASTOR, and has also Guest Starred in SCANDAL, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, WHY WOMEN KILL, ROOM 104, THE 100, and SHAMELESS, among others. Saidah's film work includes DARK WAS THE NIGHT, HONEYGLUE, CHRISTIAN MINGLE, THE DEN, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, RIGHTEOUS KILL, and others.  Theatre credits include BROADWAY: Well OFF-BROADWAY: An American Daughter (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Othello; Uncondi

TOVAH FELDSHUH who will be celebrating her 50th year onBroadway, is a six-time Emmy and TonyAward nominee and four-time winner ofthe Drama Desk and Outer Critics CircleAwards. Her multi-decade career onBroadway has given us indelible performancesin Cyrano, Rodgers Hart, Dreyfusin Rehearsal, Yentl, Sarava!, Lend Me aTenor, Golda’s Balcony, Irena’s Vow andPippin. Her extensive Off-Broadway andregional credits include her recent portrayalsof Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. TV audiencesknow her from “Holocaust,” “The WalkingDead,” “Law & Order,” “Salvation,”“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Scenes Froma Marriage.” Her film credits includeKissing Jessica Stein, A Walk on the Moon,Brewster’s Millions, Just My Luck, Daniel,The Idolmaker, Clifford, Golda’s Balconyand Armageddon Time opposite AnthonyHopkins. Tovah has filled venues all overthe world with her celebrated concerts. Heraward-winning memoir Lilyville was #1 inparent child relationships on Amazon. FollowTovah’s travels on Instagra

CHRISTINE EBERSOLE, is currently celebrating her new album After the Ball from Club44 Records, has captivated audiences throughout her performing career. Recognized with a string of honors that includes two Tony Awards, she has appeared in twenty Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, as well as gracing television series and specials, films, concerts, recordings and opera. It was for her “dual role of a lifetime” as Edith Beale and Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens that Ebersole won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, as well as virtually every available Off-Broadway honor. Other memorable New York roles include her Tony-winning turn as Dorothy Brock in the hit revival of 42nd Street, her Tony-nominated portrayal of Elizabeth Arden opposite Patti LuPone in War Paint, her Tony- and Outer Critics Circle-nominated appearance in Dinner at Eight, her Obie-winning and Drama Desk-nominated appearance in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, her performance as Guinevere alongside Richard Harris and R

Ilana sits down with new release authors of suspenseful work: Hell Town - Casey Sherman A Fatal Overture - Kathleen Marple Kalb Birthday Girl - Niko Wolf The Darkness Of Others - Cate Holahan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justin Bell Guarini’s robust performance career launched with the first season of American Idol in 2002. His stage and screen appearances since then include Broadway productions of American Idiot, InTransit, Paint Your Wagon, Romeo and Juliet, Wicked, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.   Justin has hosted nationally broadcasted shows like Idol Wrap and Idol Tonight along with live red carpet events for the TV Guide Network, the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Grammys. He continues to reprise his role as the lovable “Lil’ Sweet” in the award winning national commercial campaign for Diet Dr. Pepper.   In 2019, Justin founded The Warrior Artist Alliance (Warrior Artist Empire LLC) to help performers achieve the success they deserve in a challenging industry. He shares his tips, tricks, breadth of experience, and warrior mindset with a community of performers through podcasts, his best selling book “Audition Secrets”, blogs, and dynamic training programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoi