New York University: Academy Award Winners
by Sylviastel | created - 10 Sep 2014 | updated - 10 Sep 2014 | Public
1. Woody Allen
Writer | Annie Hall
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen ...
TSOA 1953: Won Oscars in 1977 & 1986.
2. Michael Arndt
Writer | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Michael Arndt was born on November 11, 1965 in Harris County, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).
TSOA 1987; Won Oscar in 2007.
3. Elmer Bernstein
Composer | Far from Heaven
Elmer Bernstein was educated at the Walden School and New York University. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II, writing scores for the service radio unit. He also wrote and arranged musical numbers for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. A prolific and respected film music composer, ...
Arts 1942: BA; Won Oscar in 1968.
4. Mark Bridges
Costume_designer | The Artist
Mark Bridges was born in Niagara Falls, New York, USA. He is known for The Artist (2011), Phantom Thread (2017) and Inherent Vice (2014).
Arts 1987 MFA; won Oscar in 2012.
5. James L. Brooks
Writer | Broadcast News
James L. Brooks was born on May 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He was previously married to Holly Holmberg Brooks and Marianne Catherine Morrissey.
TSOA; Won Oscar in 1984.
6. John Canemaker
Animation_department | The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
John Canemaker was born on May 28, 1943 in Waverly, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a director and producer, known for The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005), The World According to Garp (1982) and Bottom's Dream (1984).
TSOA; won Oscar in 2006.
7. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
TSOA 1978 BFA; Oscars in 1996 and 2008.
8. Geoffrey Fletcher
Writer | Precious
Initially working with a video camera and cast of toys and action figures, Geoffrey Fletcher began making films as a child. Those films in part led to his acceptance to NYU's Tisch Graduate Film Program, which he attended after his graduation from Harvard University. He has also apprenticed under ...
TSOA 1999 MFA: Won Oscar in 2010.
9. Whoopi Goldberg
Actress | Ghost
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in the Chelsea section of Manhattan on November 13, 1955. Her mother, Emma (Harris), was a teacher and a nurse, and her father, Robert James Johnson, Jr., was a clergyman. Whoopi's recent ancestors were from Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. She worked in...
GSAS; Won Oscar in 1991.
10. Louis Gossett Jr.
Actor | An Officer and a Gentleman
Louis Gossett Jr. was one of the most respected and beloved actors on stage, screen and television and is also an accomplished writer, producer and director. Off-screen, he was a social activist, educator, and author dedicated to enriching the lives of others. He was the first African-American to ...
Arts coursework; won Oscar in 1982.
11. Anne Hathaway
Actress | Les Misérables
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Kate McCauley Hathaway, an actress, and Gerald T. Hathaway, a lawyer, both originally from Philadelphia. She is of mostly Irish descent, along with English, German, and French. Her first major role came in the short-lived television series ...
Gallatin, TSOA; won Oscar in 2012.
12. Marcia Gay Harden
Actress | Mystic River
Marcia Gay Harden was born on August 14, 1959, in La Jolla, California, the third of five children. Her mother, Beverly (Bushfield), was a homemaker, and her father, Thad Harold Harden, was in the military. The family relocated often -- she first became interested in the theatre when the family was...
TSOA 1981 MFA; Won Oscar in 2000.
13. Bernard Herrmann
Composer | North by Northwest
The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and ...
WSC student under Percy Grainger; Won Oscar in 1941.
14. Lora Hirschberg
Sound_department | Inception
Lora Hirschberg is known for Inception (2010), The Dark Knight (2008) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).
TSOA 1985 BFA. Won Oscar in 2011.
15. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Actor | The Master
Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...
TSOA 1989 BFA; Won Oscar in 2005.
16. Angelina Jolie
Actress | Maleficent
Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to fame after her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the title role in the "Lara Croft" blockbuster movies, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Off-screen, Jolie has become ...
TSOA 1993 BDA; Won Oscar in 2000.
17. Burt Lancaster
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...
TSOA coursework; won Oscar in 1960.
18. Charlie Kaufman
Writer | I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Avid reader Charlie Kaufman wrote plays and made short films as a young student. He moved from Massapequa, New York to West Hartford, Connecticut in 1972 where he attended high school. As a comedic actor, he performed in school plays and, after graduation, he enrolled at Boston University but soon ...
TSOA 1980; Won Oscar in 2004.
19. Ang Lee
Director | Xi yan
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
TSOA MFA: Won Oscar in 2005.
20. Luke Matheny
Director | God of Love
Luke Matheny was born on December 23, 1976 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a producer and director, known for God of Love (2010), Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street (2014) and Ghostwriter (2019).
TSOA MFA; won Oscar in 2011.
21. Alan Menken
Soundtrack | Beauty and the Beast
Alan Menken is an American composer, songwriter, music conductor, director and record producer.
Menken is best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores and songs for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and ...
BA; Won Oscars in 1994, 1992, 1991, and 1989.
22. Carole Bayer Sager
Soundtrack | The Spy Who Loved Me
Carole Bayer Sager was born on March 8, 1944 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a composer, known for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Arthur (1981) and Junior (1994). She has been married to Robert A. Daly since June 8, 1996. She was previously married to Burt Bacharach and Andrew Sager.
BA 1979; Won Oscar in 1981.
23. Thelma Schoonmaker
Editor | The Departed
Thelma Schoonmaker was born on January 3, 1940 in Algiers, Algeria. She is an editor and producer, known for The Departed (2006), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and The Irishman (2019). She was previously married to Michael Powell.
TSOA; Won Oscar in 2005.
24. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
BA 1964, MFA 1966; Won Oscar in 2006.
25. John Patrick Shanley
Writer | Moonstruck
John Patrick Shanley was born on October 3, 1950 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Moonstruck (1987), Doubt (2008) and Congo (1995).
MA 1977; Won Oscar in 1987.
26. Oliver Stone
Director | JFK
Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.
William Oliver Stone was ...
TSOA 1970 MFA; Won Oscars in 1978, 1987, and 1989.
27. Jim Taylor
Writer | Election
Jim Taylor was born in 1962 in Bellevue, Washington, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Election (1999), Sideways (2004) and About Schmidt (2002). He has been married to Tamara Jenkins since 2002. They have one child.
TSOA 1996; Won Oscar in 2004.
28. Marisa Tomei
Actress | My Cousin Vinny
Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, to Patricia "Addie" (Bianchi), a teacher of English, and Gary Tomei, a lawyer, both of Italian descent. Marisa has a brother, actor Adam Tomei. As a child, Marisa's mother frequently corrected her speech as to eliminate her heavy ...
TSOA 1983 BFA; Won Oscar in 1992.
Ph.D. 1986; Won Oscar in 1997.
30. Paul Francis Webster
Soundtrack | Calamity Jane
Paul Francis Webster was born on December 20, 1907 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Calamity Jane (1953), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and Spider-Man (2002). He died on March 22, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Arst 1928-1930; Won Oscar in 1953.
31. Victor J. Zolfo
Set_decorator | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Victor J. Zolfo is known for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Alien: Covenant (2017) and The Avengers (2012).
TSOA 1985; Won Oscar in 2009.
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