Sam Weisman

Sam Weisman worked for ten years as an actor before making the transition to directing. He has earned directorial credits in film, television, and theatre. They include the feature films George of the Jungle (which received a British Academy Award nomination for Best Children's Movie),The Out-of-Towners (starring Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, and John Cleese), Bye-Bye Love, D2: The Mighty Ducks, and Dickie Roberts (starring David Spade, produced by Adam Sandler). He also was Co-Producer of the feature film, Dad (starring Jack Lemmon, Olympia Dukakis, and Ted Danson). Mr. Weisman has directed or produced over 200 television episodes, for such shows as “Family Ties,” ”The Moonlighting,” L.A. Law,” “Seventh Heaven” (Pilot Episode), “Law and Order,” ”Monk,” “In Plain Sight,” and “The Bernie Mac Show.” Other television credits include the PBS American Playhouse production of “Breakfast with Les and Bess,” starring Dick Van Dyke and Cloris Leachman. His television work has received three Emmy Nominations, multiple Humanitas Awards, two Golden Globe Nominations, and a Golden Globe Award. His Pilot of the critically acclaimed series, “Brooklyn Bridge,” was honored by TV Guide as one of the best television episodes of all time. Mr. Weisman is the co- creator and Executive Producer of “The Sing Off,” NBC Television's a cappella singing competition. Working in the theatre Mr. Weisman has been honored with multiple Drama-Logue and LA Weekly Awards, as well as Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Director honors for the West Coast premieres of Harold Pinter's Betrayal and Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit. Other West Coast theatre credits include James Lapine's Table Settings, Moliere's The Misanthrope at USC's Bing Theatre, and an acclaimed production of Sam Shepard's Buried Child at South Coast Repertory Theatre. Mr. Weisman was also the director and co-creator of Lies and Legends: The Musical Stories of Harry Chapin, which premiered in Chicago, and then opened in New York at the legendary Village Gate. The show went on to be a major hit in Toronto at the Centre Stage, and in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Canon Theatre, where it was honored with a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for Best Ensemble. At The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, he directed Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, and the world premiere of John Kolvenbach's Gizmo Love. A graduate of Deerfield Academy and Yale (B.A. Music History), Mr. Weisman received an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from Brandeis University's Department of Theatre Arts, where he is a Fellow of The University. In recent years he has returned there to teach acting, and to direct productions of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. He has taught and directed at the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, where he is Director of Professional Development, and his production of Neil LaBute's This is How it Goes was singled out by Boston Globe theatre critic Ed Siegel as one of the highlights of 2005. Also in that year, Mr. Weisman returned to acting, playing Polonius in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's Hamlet on the Boston Common, opposite the Hamlet of Jeffrey Donovan (star of the USA Network series, “Burn Notice”). Mr. Weisman is the co- creator and Executive Producer of “The Sing Off,” NBC Television's a cappella singing competition. Other teaching work includes semesters at Deerfield and Emerson College, as well as guest lectures at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, USC, Boston University, NYU, Rhode Island School of Design, Duke University, and Yale. He has been elected three times to the East Coast Council of the Directors Guild of America, and is a voting member of the Directors' Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.