Known for:	Angels in America, Munich, In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway
Birthday:	16 July 1956, New York, New York, USA

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 130, pp. 240-246. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005. Won two Tony Awards as the author of the Best Play winner two years in a row: in 1993 for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" and in 1994 for "Angels in America: Perestroika." He was also twice nominated in 2004 for "Caroline, or Change:" as Best Book of a Musical and as Best Score (Music and/or Lyrics), the latter with collaborator 'Jeanine Tesori . In Tony Kushner's play "Angels in America," when an angel crashes through Prior Walter's ceiling in a spectacular shower of light and masonry, Walter exclaims, "very Steven Speilberg!" Kushner and Speilberg later worked together on Munich (2005). Brandeis University awarded him an honorary Doctorate in 2006. This decision was the source of some controversy among some conservative members of the Brandeis student body, faculty, staff, and alumni who objected to Kushner because they perceived his co-authorship of Munich and some of his stated views to be anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Kushner responded with a letter to the editor of the Jewish newspaper "The Forward" in which he said that he is "a proud Jew, a Jewish-American man" who "love[s] Israel," but whose "opinions about Israel are characterized by a serious ambivalence." Kushner was also quoted in Newsweek as saying that his statements about Israel have been taken out of context and "anybody who thinks there's a simple line to be taken on the Middle East is an idiot." Despite the protests, Brandeis pledged to go ahead and award the honorary degree to Kushner. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in May 2006. Invited to join AMPAS in 2006.

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