11 Facts About Madeleine Olnek

Madeleine Olnek is an American independent film director, producer, screenwriter, and playwright.

Madeleine Olnek has written 24 plays and three feature films, including Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, The Foxy Merkins, and Wild Nights with Emily.

Madeleine Olnek studied drama at NYU and graduated in 1987, she received fellowships for an MFA in creative writing from Brown University, and the William Goldman Screenwriting Fellowship for an MFA in film from Columbia University.

Madeleine Olnek became a member of the advocacy group ACT UP in the early 90's.

Shannon credits Madeleine Olnek with being "the midwife" to her signature sketch comedy character.

Madeleine Olnek belonged to the Emerging Writers Group at New York's Public Theater and worked with the WOW Cafe theater in New York where she wrote and directed many plays including, Wild Nights with Emily and Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.

Madeleine Olnek began to realize that technological advances in the film industry were making it "the place of immediacy", so she began to focus on filmmaking.

Madeleine Olnek made her first short film Hold Up in 2006 and another Countertransference in 2009, both of which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2011, Madeleine Olnek adapted one of her plays into her first feature film Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, which played at Sundance, MoMA, and The Viennale, and was nominated for the 2011 Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Madeleine Olnek received research grants from Harvard University Press and the Guggenheim Foundation to adapt another of her plays into her third feature, Wild Nights with Emily.

Madeleine Olnek considers herself a "lady homosexual" and lives in New York City.