Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

Latest Episodes:

Episode 152 - Ben Stiller Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

Ilana Levine - the host of Little Known Facts - recently sat down with Ben Stiller (actor, director, writer, producer and activist) on stage in front of a live audience at The Atlantic Theater as part of her live podcast series. Together these two old friends shared hilarious stories of their early days in New York City, Ben's growing up, the child of the famous comedy duo Stiller and Meara, his experience on stage vs. film, dealing with fame and his work on behalf of refugees.

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Episode 151 - Anna Chlumsky Jun 24, 2019

Show notes

Anna Chlumsky is an Emmy nominated actress who has continued to make a name for herself in film, on television and on stage. Most recently, Chlumsky completed production on the seventh and final season of the Emmy-winning comedy, Veep, which will premiered on HBO on March 31st, 2019. Chlumsky was seen on screen in Minhal Baig’s film “Hala” as Shannon, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Festival. “Hala’s” worldwide rights has also been acquired by Apple. In 2017, Chlumsky was nominated for her fifth consecutive Emmy© in the category of “Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series” for her portrayal as Brookheimer. She was also nominated for a Critics Choice Award, and won the SAG Ensemble for VEEP. She won the Gracie Allen Award in 2015 for Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a comedy or Musical for her work on Veep. Chlumsky made her Broadway debut in 2015 in Scott Ellis’ revival of You Can’t Take It With You. She played “Alice Sycamore,” the daughter of an eccentric family, opposite James Earl Jones and Annaleigh Ashford. She also reprised her role as “Iris Peabody” in Joe DiPietro’s Living on Love, which made its Williamstown Theatre Festival debut in 2014 and transferred to Broadway. Based on the famed Peccadillo, Chlumsky starred opposite Renee Fleming, Douglas Sills and Jerry O’Connell. Additionally, her New York stage credits include: Cardinal, 3C, Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside Theatre); So Help Me God (Mint Theatre Company); Unconditional(LA Byrinth Theater Company); The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (DR2);Darwin in Malibu (Bay Street Theatre); The Butcherhouse Chronicles (Summer Play Festival); Balm in Gilead (Barefoot Theater Company - Member); Half Life (Flea Theater/Fringe Festival); Iphigeneia at Aulis (TimeSpace Productions); Measure for Measure (Astoria Performing Arts Center); No Alarms: Headfullofradio (Veritas Productions); and The Trojan Women (Veritas Productions). Additional TV credits include AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, NBC’s Hannibal,: 30 Rock, and Law & Order” SVU. Chlumsky became a household name when she starred alongside Macaulay Culkin as Vada Sultenfuss in the 1991 film, My Girl. Other notable film credits include: The End of Tour, Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship, In The Loop; The Good Guy; Blood Car; My Girl 2; Gold Diggers; the Glamour Reel Short, and Wait. She currently resides in NY.

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Episode 150 - John Cameron Mitchell Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

An actor, playwright, screenwriter, and director, the Tony Award-winning John Cameron Mitchell is most famous as co-creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which began life as an Obie-winning off-Broadway show (with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask), before becoming a 2001 movie (written, directed by and starring Mitchell), which won Mitchell the Best Director award at that year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as a raft of other awards and a Golden Globe nomination. He also starred on Broadway in Six Degrees of Separation, The Secret Garden and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Mitchell also directed the 2006 movie Shortbus, which showed explicit sex; has collaborated on projects spanning music, theater, and film; has starred in TV shows including Shrill and Girls; and directed the films, Rabbit Hole and How To Talk To Girls At Parties among others.

He is currently on tour performing The Origin of Love: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig and wrote and stars in a podcast fictional series called Anthem: Homunculus which Mitchell describes as a continuation of the Hedwig story co- starring Glen Close, Patti LuPone and Cynthia Erivo along with other Broadway stars.

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Episode 149 - Stephanie J. Block Jun 10, 2019

Show notes

This week, 2019 Tony winner Stephanie J. Block joins Ilana for a conversation.

Block has established herself as one of the most relevant and versatile voices in contemporary musical theatre. She most recently won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical portraying Star in THE CHER SHOW and also garnered a Drama League, Drama Desk and TONY Award nomination(s) for her current role of Star. Ms. Block also received the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk & TONY nomination(s) for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2017 for her star turn as Trina in Lincoln Center Theatre’s highly acclaimed revival of FALSETTOS. In 2013 she was recognized with both the Drama Desk and TONY Award nomination(s) for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Alice Nutting/ Edwin DROOD in The Roundabout Theater’s production of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. That marks 3 TONY Award nominations in the last 6 years, a feat very few Broadway actors have attained. Other Broadway credits include Reno Sweeney in the 2011 TONY Award winning revival of ANYTHING GOES, 9 TO 5:THE MUSICAL playing the role of Judy Bernly for which she earned a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She created the roles of Grace O'Malley in THE PIRATE QUEEN and Liza Minnelli In THE BOY FROM OZ (opposite Hugh Jackman). Ms. Block is best known for her portrayal as Elphaba in the Broadway company of WICKED as well as originating the role in the First National Tour for which she won numerous awards including the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.

Ms. Block has sung with numerous symphony orchestras including the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch), Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Charlotte Symphony and the Cleveland Pops among many others. Her solo concert has been critically acclaimed and continues to sell out throughout the US and in London.

Some of her Off-Broadway and regional theatrical credits include LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical), BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK(Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play), THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG(starring opposite Jason Alexander), CATS (St Louis' Kevin Kline Award Nominee- Best Actress),FUNNY GIRL, CRAZY FOR YOU (L.A. Ovation Award Nominee), OLIVER (Critics Award-Best Actress), James Joyce's THE DEAD, TRIUMPH OF LOVE, THE GRASS HARP, SOUTH PACIFIC, WILL ROGERS FOLLIES and the World Premiere of WICKED.

Stephanie's solo album, THIS PLACE I KNOW has been received with great praise, lauded by critics as "One of the best debut recordings to come out of the Broadway community in quite some time... 6 out of 5 stars". An array of award-winning songwriters assembled to help interpret their music on Stephanie's album. Composers such as Stephen Schwartz, Marvin Hamlisch and the legendary Dolly Parton join forces with Ms. Block to create a thrilling musical experience. Stephanie's voice can be heard on multiple cast recordings, including THE BOY FROM OZ, THE PIRATE QUEEN, WICKED's 5th Anniversary Album and 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL (GrammyNomination).

Television credits include: RISE (upcoming: NBC), MADAME SECRETARY (CBS), ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix), HOMELAND (Showtime), IT COULD BE WORSE (HULU).

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Episode 148 - Robert Horn Jun 03, 2019

Show notes

A New York native, Robert Horn studied Theater at New York University’s Tisch School

of the Arts and New York’s Circle in the Square theater school. Soon after, he left for

Los Angeles to pursue a writing career in film and television that has spanned has over 30

years. His first break came as a writer/producer on the iconic television series ‘Designing

Women’, followed by the groundbreaking Fox series ‘Living Single’, and the irreverent

CBS comedy ‘High Society’.

Mr. Horn was then signed to an overall production deal with Warner Brothers Studios,

where he developed, wrote, and Executive Produced dozens of network pilots and/or

series. He then signed a multi-year script deal at Sony Studios, followed by an overall

pilot deal at ABC Studios. He, along with television veteran Bob Boyett, wrote and

created the FX series Partners, one of the few 10/90 deals made in the early 2000’s. He

has written projects for many numerous broadcast, cable, and platform networks,

including as the musical pilot Car Wash with Will Packer, The Jenni Rivera show for

latin susperstar Jenni Rivera, the pilot Sunnyland for TBS starring Jennifer Hudson, Left

of Center developed with TV veteran Gail Berman, and Taxi 22 at HBO, starring James

Gandolfini.

Mr. Horn also wrote musical movie’s such as ‘Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure’, the next

of the High School Musical series, followed by the hugely popular ‘Teen Beach Movie’

franchise for Disney.

Along with his television credits, Mr. Horn has written such diverse projects as ‘Wildlife’

for Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Charlie Sheen feature film ‘Good Advice’, ‘The

RuPaul Christmas Special’ for the BBC, and ‘Revenge’, a digital musical series co-

written with Jason Robert Brown for Sony’s digital Crackle network, and contributed

Bette Midler’s world tour Divine Intervention.

Theatrically, Mr. Horn has written the books for ‘Dame Edna, Back With A Vengeance’

which opened at Broadway’s Music Box theater in 2004, ‘Lone Star Love’, the Red Clay

Rambler musical which premiered at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, the Jason Robert

Brown musical ‘13’, which previewed at the Goodspeed Opera House in Goodspeed,

Conn, and opened at the Jacobs Theater in New York. the musical ‘Moonshine, that Hee

Haw Musical’, wirth Brandy Clark and Shane Mcanally, which opened at the Dallas

Theater Center, and the Broadway musical Tootsie, collaborating with David Yazbek

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Episode 147 - Tracy Spiridakos May 27, 2019

Show notes

Tracy Spiridakos was born in Canada and spent a portion of her childhood in her native Greece. Her family returned to Winnipeg but Tracy knew she wouldn't stay there long, eventually leaving solid employment at her parents Greek restaurant to move to Vancouver and pursue her dreams of acting.

She found success early on television series such as Supernatural and Being Human, but her breakout role was playing the lead role of Charlie Matheson on JJ Abrams' Revolution on NBC. Since then she has shown her comedic side in Showtime's Episodes with Matt LeBlanc, as a femme fatale on A&E’s Bates Motel and has the mysterious ex-girlfriend of Lucas Till’s “MacGyver.”

Tracy currently stars as “Det. Hailey Upton” on the NBC hit show “Chicago PD”. She lives in Chicago with her beloved Rottweiler, Nala.

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Episode 146 - Shoshana Bean May 20, 2019

Show notes

Shoshana Bean can be seen on Broadway this summer in the role of Jenna in the hit musical Waitress. Bean'slatest album Spectrum landed her at #1 on the Billboard Jazz Charts. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Hairspray and starred as the first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked. Most recently, she appeared as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and as Cee-Cee Bloom in the new musical adaptation of Beaches, for which she earned a Jeff Award Nomination for best lead actress in a musical.

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Episode 145 - Tommy Kail May 13, 2019

Show notes

On an early Sunday morning Tommy Kail and Ilana met in the quiet of the podcast booth to catch up about all the things!! From Hamilton to hair products Ilana and Tommy cover a lot of territory. Other topics discussed include Tommy's childhood in the D.C. area, the pain of no longer being able to play sports, and of course his deep friendship and creative partnership with Lin Manuel Miranda. Thomas Kail won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Hamilton. Kail's Broadway credits include In the Heights (Tony nom.), Lombardi, Magic/Bird. Off-Broadway: Hamilton (the Public; Drama Desk, Lortel and Obie Awards), In the Heights (Callaway Award, Drama Desk/OCC noms), Randy Newman's Faust and The Wiz (City Center), Broke-ology and When I Come to Die (LCT), Family Furniture (The Flea, Drama Desk nom), The Tutors (2ST Uptown).

Other credits: Broke-ology (Williamstown), Once on This Island (Paper Mill) and In the Heights (national tour). Co-creator/director of hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme. Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center.

He won the Emmy award for his direction of Grease Live and is the Director and an Executive Producer of the mini series Fosse/Verdon for FX.

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Episode 144 - Maddie Corman May 06, 2019

Show notes

Maddie Corman joins Ilana this week on the podcast. Maddie’s career began when she appeared in the seminal 80's movies Seven Minutes in Heaven and Some Kind of Wonderful. Maddie was a series regular on “Mr. President”, “All American Girl” and “Almost There.” Guest /recurring roles include all 3 “Law & Orders”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Damages”, “The Good Wife”, “Person of Interest”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Girls”, “Divorce”, “Odd Mom Out”, “When We Rise”, “High Maintenance”, “Younger” and “Madame Secretary”. Films include: Wonderwheel, 5 Flights Up, Peace Love & Misunderstanding, Morning Glory, Ira & Abby, What Happens in Vegas, I Think I Do, Ford Fairlane and Swingers. Upcoming: Maddie will play Lady Aberlin to Tom Hanks’ Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood. Broadway: Next Fall, Picnic. Off-Broadway: The Babylon Line, Appropriate, Love Loss, etc. She wrote, co-directed and stars in How Was Your Day (Tribeca Film Fest “Watch this short” series). Maddie was a Playwright in Residence at NY Stage and Film where she developed Accidentally Brave.

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Episode 143 - The Ferryman Kids Apr 29, 2019

Show notes

Ilana interviews the three child actresses who star in The Ferryman on Broadway.

MATILDA LAWLER -Broadway debut! Last fall, she starred opposite Richard Masur in The Net Will Appear at MST. Matilda plays Michaela McManus’ daughter in the upcoming The Block Island Sound by the McManus Brothers. Matilda also enjoys writing, design and cupcakes. Special thanks to David Doan, CESD, Mom, Lily, Richard and Dad.

WILLOW MCCARTHY- made her professional and Broadway debut in the title role of Matilda. Last season she appeared on Broadway in 1984. She is in 6th grade. Much love and gratitude to her friends and family for their love and support, with a special shout out to her cousins, Amy and Lydia. Brian, Rachel, Ellen, and Jillian, thank you.

BROOKLYN SHUCK - is originally from Lexington, KY. Broadway: Annie, Matilda, Tuck Everlasting, Les Misérables, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Regional: Randy Newman’s Faust, Beaches (Signature/Drury Lane). TV: “Rise,” “Instinct.” Thanks and love to my family, Nancy Carson and John Mara. IG @brooklynshuck

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