Billy Van Zandt

Billy Van Zandt and his writing partner, the late Jane Milmore, are two of the most often produced playwrights in the world. Billy and Jane met at a high school acting competition in their home state of New Jersey. Together for 46 years, they wrote and starred in 25 plays together, including the international hit comedy "You've Got Hate Mail;" Off-Broadway's tribute to slapstick comedy "Silent Laughter;" cult favorite ""Drop Dead"; the Marx Bros. musical "A Night at the Nutcracker;" and the summer stock stock perennial "Love, Sex, and the IRS." Billy's solo play "The Property Known as Garland" starring his ex-wife Adrienne Barbeau broke box office records at Off-Broadway's Actors Playhouse. The plays have been produced in thousands of theaters worldwide, including two productions directed by Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis ("Billy and Jane are funny, outrageous, off-the chart writers/performers") and one by film legend Burt Reynolds. For television, these award-winning writers have produced over three hundred hours of television comedy, including "Newhart;" "Martin," which won them a People's Choice Award; "The Hughley's," which won them a Prism Award;" "Suddenly Susan" for Brooke Shields; "Daddy Dearest" for Don Rickles and Richard Lewis; "Anything But Love" for Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis; "The Wayans Bros."; and "I Love Lucy: The Very First Show" which won them an Emmy nomination. As an actor, Billy made his film debut in "Jaws 2"; and has co-starred with George C Scott, Tim Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Giancarlo Esposito, Evan Handler, Karl Malden, Mrs. Maisel, That Girl Lay Lay, and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Billy lives in Los Angeles, when he's not touring the world in the last Van Zandt/Milmore musical, "The Boomer Boys Musical."