Kenneth Lonergan

Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director, and actor. He is known for his works which explore complex emotional and interpersonal dynamics. He has received several awards including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a Tony Award.

In 1982 Lonergan wrote his first one-act play, The Rennings Children. He then earned acclaim for a string of off-Broadway plays, including This is Our Youth (1996), The Waverly Gallery (2000), and Lobby Hero (2001), which were later revived on Broadway. For his work on The Waverly Gallery, he was selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as was nominated for Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2019.

He directed and wrote the drama film Manchester by the Sea (2016) which won him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He was previously Oscar-nominated as a writer for his first film You Can Count on Me (2000) and as a co-writer for Martin Scorsese's historical epic film Gangs of New York (2002). He also wrote and directed the psychological drama film Margaret (2011), and adapted the E.M. Forster novel Howards End into the 2017 miniseries of the same name.