14 Facts About Paul Rudnick

Paul Rudnick was born on December 29,1957 and is an American writer.

Paul Rudnick's plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world.

Paul Rudnick was born and raised in a Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, where his mother, Selma, was a publicist and his father, Norman, was a physicist.

Paul Rudnick attended Yale College before moving to New York City, where he wrote book jacket copy and worked as an assistant to his friend, the costume designer William Ivey Long.

Paul Rudnick began writing for magazines, including Esquire, Vogue, Vanity Fair and Spy.

Paul Rudnick then wrote two novels: Social Disease, a satiric tale of New York nightlife in the vein of Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, and I'll Take It, which was a tribute to Paul Rudnick's mother and aunts and their passionate love of shopping.

In 1993 Paul Rudnick had a breakthrough with his Off-Broadway hit Jeffrey.

Frank Rich, in The New York Times, called Paul Rudnick "a born show-biz wit with perfect pitch for priceless one-liners".

Paul Rudnick wrote Valhalla, an epic which entwined the lives of a World War II soldier from Texas with Ludwig, the Mad King of Bavaria; Regrets Only, a drawing room comedy starring Christine Baranski and George Grizzard; and The New Century, a collection of related one-acts, which was produced at Lincoln Center and for which the actress Linda Lavin won a Drama Desk Award.

Paul Rudnick has more recently contributed two pieces, The Gay Agenda and My Husband, to the Off-Broadway anthology Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.

Paul Rudnick has worked as an uncredited script doctor on films including The Addams Family and The First Wives Club.

Paul Rudnick was credited as the pseudonym "Joseph Howard" for his work on Sister Act, which was originally intended as a vehicle for Bette Midler; the screenplay went through many changes, and by the time it became re-fashioned for Whoopi Goldberg he refused to have his real name associated with it.

Since 1998, Paul Rudnick has been a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, mostly of over 50 short humor pieces.

Paul Rudnick's work appears in the collections Fierce Pajamas and Disquiet, Please.