Elaine May

Elaine Iva May née Berlin born April 21 1932 is an American actress comedian writer and director She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols before transitioning her career regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films She has received numerous awards including a BAFTA Award a Grammy Award and a Tony Award She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022 In 1955 May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the Compass Players an improvisational theater group She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957 they both quit the group to form their own stage act Nichols and May In New York they performed nightly in clubs in Greenwich Village alongside Joan Rivers and Woody Allen as well as on the Broadway stage They also made regular appearances on television and radio broadcasts They released multiple comedy albums and received four Grammy Award nominations winning Best Comedy Album for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in 1962 Their collaboration was covered in the PBS documentary Nichols and May Take Two 1996 May infrequently acted in films including Luv Enter Laughing both 1967 California Suite 1978 and Small Time Crooks 2000 She became the first female director with a Hollywood deal since Ida Lupino when she directed the 1971 black screwball comedy A New Leaf Experimenting with genres she directed the dark romantic comedy The Heartbreak Kid 1972 the gangster film Mikey and Nicky 1976 and adventure comedy Ishtar 1987 May later earned acclaim writing the screenplays for Warren Beattys Heaven Can Wait 1978 and Mike Nichols The Birdcage 1996 and Primary Colors 1998 Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colors each earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay while the latter won her the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay May returned to acting in Woody Allens Amazon Prime series Crisis in Six Scenes 2016 and on Broadway in the revival of the Kenneth Lonergan play The Waverly Gallery 2018 the latter of which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play The win made May the secondoldest performer behind Lois Smith to win a Tony Award for acting In 2022 the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave May an Honorary Academy Award for her bold uncompromising approach to filmmaking as a writer director and actress Description above from the Wikipedia article Elaine May licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia