Jeffrey Whitty
Screenwriter, Playwright,
Performer.
Have I Got A Story For You.
Jeffrey Whitty is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, poet and performer.
SCREENPLAYS
His 2018 screenplay adaptation of Lee Israel’s CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, co-written with Nicole Holofcener, was produced by Fox Searchlight, directed by Marielle Heller, and stars Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, both of whom received Academy Award nominations. Mr. Whitty’s writing garnered Best Adapted Screenplay awards from the Writers Guild of America, the Independent Spirit Awards, LA Drama Critics as well as BAFTA and Academy Award nominations.
MUSICALS
Mr. Whitty is the author of the musical AVENUE Q (Tony Award) which ran for sixteen years commercially in New York, six years on London’s West End, and continues to be produced all over the world in dozens of languages. Other musicals include his original story for BRING IT ON with a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Amanda Green (Broadway, Best Musical Tony nomination), an adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s TALES OF THE CITY with music by Scissor Sisters (best Book, Bay Area Critics Circle Award), and the original pre-Broadway HEAD OVER HEELS, a jukebox musical featuring modern music, based on a long-lost book from 1580, which he wrote entirely in iambic pentameter. In his original version, Mr. Whitty's HEAD OVER HEELS sold out its entire five-month run on the 1100-seat outdoor stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and he is at work on a revised version with an original score.
PLAYS
Mr. Whitty’s plays include THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF HEDDA GABLER (in which he performed the titular role in New York, sharing leading lady status with Billy Porter as Mammy from GONE WITH THE WIND), THE PLANK PROJECT (a cheeky parody of THE LARAMIE PROJECT), and THE HIDING PLACE, a comedy about Bohemian New York artists. His recent modern-language adaptation of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM was commissioned by the Play On! Festival, and productions are now lined up in several US theaters, in Prague and London as well as an upcoming podcast for Next Chapter podcasts.
HISTORY
Mr. Whitty is a performer as well, holding an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.
Jeffrey grew up with five siblings in Coos Bay, Oregon, including his brother George (a noted jazz musician and a winner of multiple Emmy and Grammy awards). After Jeffrey left Oregon on a hippie bus bound for NYC (sight-unseen) with two grand in his pocket, he lived in Manhattan for two colorful decades. He currently lives in West Hollywood.
Mr. Whitty’s proudest achievement (thus far) is his presence in a Jeopardy “answer” on March 27, 2013.
