ReportWire

Tag: Jesse Tyler Ferguson

  • Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit Explores the Impact of AI on Film, TV and More

    Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit Explores the Impact of AI on Film, TV and More

    Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit on Sept. 26 will feature industry leaders who will discuss the impact of advancing technology on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media and consumer brands. The one-day event, presented by City National Bank, will be hosted at The London West Hollywood. 

    Among the guests is Eli Collins, Google DeepMind Vice President of Product Management, who will speak in the panel titled “Generative AI – Succeeding With the Genie Out of the Bottle.” He contextualizes how breakthroughs like the Transformer provided the foundation for today’s Generative AI boom, underpinning the image, video and other AI models that are disrupting the industry. 

    “We’re going to see AI tools that serve as a creative collaborator…imagine a film that adapts its tone and pacing to match your mood, or a music playlist that evolves with your tastes throughout the day,” Collins says. “Most of us have a video camera in our pockets throughout the day; think about the stories you’ll be able to tell in a world where AI lets you transform the footage you’ve shot in any way you can imagine.”

    Annie Luo, EVP of Global Partnerships and Strategic Development at Peacock, will be on the “Perfecting the Business of Streaming” panel. Her team is focused on launching innovative partnerships and cites Peacock’s deals with InstaCart and JetBlue as key examples.

    She describes the streamer’s mixed virtual reality partnerships with Meta. “A growing area of the creative business we are leaning into is virtual and mixed reality with partners like Meta,” Luo says. “We have a multiyear deal that brings Peacock and iconic NBCUniversal IP into a variety of Meta’s Reality Labs surfaces, including Horizon Worlds and Mera Quest headsets. This allows for us to innovate around our IP and bring in new, younger audiences.”

    Former “Modern Family” star and host of “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson,” Ferguson will speak at the “Podcast All-Stars” panel, explaining how he tries to highlight his podcast by engaging with fans as well as promoting conversations with guests through social media. “People can visually see the connection that we have as well as listen to it in the podcast itself,” he says. “Every episode is a little different on how I push it out on social media.”

    Warner Bros. TV topper Channing Dungey and DC Studios’ Peter Safran are this year’s keynote speakers, sharing their inside knowledge of the changing scope of the entertainment industry due to the advances in technology. Pinterest CCO Malik Ducard and NBCUniversal president, scripted Lisa Katz are among the speakers for the “Entertainment Content Visionaries” panel and will outline new strategies to create projects that connects with audiences. 

    Erin Oremland — General Manager, AgilLink and SVP, and Head of Ecosystem Delivery — will discuss how entertainment companies are infrastructure in a panel called “Advancing Financial Operations in an Uncertain Media Marketplace.” In the panel titled “Power Couple: Entrepreneurship + Entertainment,” leaders in the industry go over how they are working to find innovative ideas to drive growth.

    In the “Expedia Group Brands: Empowering Digital Creators and Commerce” panel, Lauri Metrose from Expedia Group highlights a groundbreaking initiative in the travel industry while collaborating with influencer Caroline Baudino. On a similar note, in the panel “Marketer Renaissance – Masters of Storytelling Across Platforms,” industry leaders discuss their strategies for impactful storytelling across diverse platforms, including outdoor, online, TV, print and merchandise.

    Tim O’Brien, CRO of Scopely, speaks to guests about mega-deals and mergers that have transformed both traditional entertainment and the video game industry in the panel “Game Changing Deals.” It is followed by “Building Cultural Bridges in the Global Streaming Entertainment Era,” a panel of Amazon leaders representing different entertainment services and divisions, who will address how the streaming media landscape can serve as a conduit for diversifying audience reach while also building equity.

    A schedule of events can be found here.

    Andrés Buenahora

    Source link

  • ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Stereophonic’ lead Tony Award nominations, 2 shows honoring creativity’s spark

    ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Stereophonic’ lead Tony Award nominations, 2 shows honoring creativity’s spark

    NEW YORK – Two Broadway shows celebrating the spark of sonic creativity — the semi-autobiographical Alicia Keys musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” and the play “Stereophonic” about a ’70s rock band recording a star-making album — each earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, a list that also saw a record number of women nominated for best director.

    “This is totally crazy. It took me about an hour to get myself together. I couldn’t even formulate words,” Keys said after a morning where the show loosely based on her life was nominated for best new musical and four acting awards as well as best scenic design, costumes, lighting, sound design, direction, choreography and orchestrations. “I am totally at a loss for words. Don’t ask me to write a song.”

    A total of 28 shows earned a Tony nod or more, with the musical “The Outsiders,” an adaptation of the beloved S. E. Hinton novel and the Francis Ford Coppola film, earning 12 nominations; a starry revival of “Cabaret” starring Eddie Redmayne, nabbing nine; and “Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ searing play about a family reunion in Arkansas where everyone has competing motivations and grievances, grabbing eight.

    The nominations marked a smashing of the Tony record for most women directors named in a single season. The 2022 Tony Awards had held the record, with four total across the two races — musical and play. Only 10 women have gone on to win a directing crown.

    This year, seven women took the 10 directing slots. Three women were nominated for best play direction — Lila Neugebauer (“Appropriate”), Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”) and Whitney White (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”) — while four were nominated in the musical category — Maria Friedman (“Merrily We Roll Along“), Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”) Jessica Stone (“Water for Elephants”) and Danya Taymor (“The Outsiders”).

    “The one thing I feel is it’s starting to feel less remarkable, which is great news,” Stone said after her nomination. “We are directors and not women directors. I’m noticing it more and more and that’s a wonderful thing to think about. It’s a wonderful place to be.”

    “Stereophonic,” which became the most-nominated play in Tony history, earned nominations for playwright David Adjmi and for its songs by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire. It’s the story of a Fleetwood Mac-like band over a life-changing year, with personal rifts opening and closing and then reopening. Butler says it is about art’s “horror and its beauty.”

    An album of the rock-roots music heard during the play will be available next month and Butler has high hopes: “We wanted it to stand up against Tom Petty and ‘Rumors’ and the new Beyoncé country record,” he said. “Making it was its own reward.”

    Rachel McAdams, making her Broadway debut in “Mary Jane,” earned a best actress in a play nomination, while “Succession” star Jeremy Strong, got his first ever nomination, for a revival of “An Enemy of the People” and Liev Schreiber of “Ray Donovan” fame nabbd one for leading “Doubt.” Jessica Lange in “Mother Play,” Sarah Paulson in “Appropriate” and Amy Ryan, who stepped in at the last minute for a revival of “Doubt,” also earned nominations in the best actress in a play category.

    “The Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons earned a supporting nod for “Mother Play,” and Daniel Radcliffe on his fifth Broadway show, a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” won his first nomination.

    Radcliffe, caring for his infant son on Tony nominations morning, said he felt incredibly lucky and called being in the musical alongside Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez — both also nominated — “one of the most special experiences of my professional career.”

    “I have always felt like doing stage and particularly doing it here has been such a huge part of my career and sort of like finding out who I was as an actor outside of Harry Potter,” he said. “I think it’s kind of been the making of me.”

    Redmayne in his second show on Broadway got a nod as best lead actor in a musical, as did Brian d’Arcy James for “Days of Wine and Roses,” Brody Grant in “The Outsiders,” Jonathan Groff in “Merrily We Roll Along” and 73-year-old Dorian Harewood in “The Notebook,” the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks romantic tearjerker. Harewood, in his first Broadway show in 46 years, landed his first Tony nomination.

    It was one of three nominations for “The Notebook,” but the musical’s composer, Ingrid Michaelson, didn’t earn a nomination, nor did Barry Manilow for his show “Harmony.” A revival of “The Wiz” also failed to garner any nominations, nor did the Huey Lewis jukebox “The Heart of Rock and Roll.”

    Redmayne’s “Cabaret” co-star Gayle Rankin earned a nomination for best actress in a musical, as did Eden Espinosa in “Lempicka,” Maleah Joi Moon in “Hell’s Kitchen,” Kelli O’Hara in “Days of Wine and Roses” and 71-year-old Maryann Plunkett, who plays the elderly wife at the heart of “The Notebook.”

    Steve Carell in his Broadway debut in a poorly received revival of the classic play “Uncle Vanya” and “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli in “An Enemy of the People” both failed to secure nods, but starry producers who did include Keys, Angelina Jolie (for “The Outsiders”) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (for “Suffs”).

    The best new musical crown will be a battle between “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Outsiders,” the dance-heavy, dialogue-less stage adaptation of Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 album “Illinois,” “Suffs,” based on the American suffragists of the early 20th century, and “Water for Elephants,” which combines Sara Green’s 2006 bestseller with circus elements.

    The best new play Tony will pit “Stereophonic” against “Mother Play,” Paula Vogel’s look at a mother and her kids spanning 1964 to the 21st century; “Mary Jane,” Amy Herzog’s humanistic portrait of a divorced mother of a young boy with health issues; “Prayer for the French Republic,” Joshua Harmon’s sprawling family comedy-drama that deals with Zionism, religious fervency and antisemitism; and “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy about the lives of West African women working at a salon.

    Lamar Richardson, an actor-turned-producer, had many reasons to smile Tuesday. He helped produce the three new revivals of “The Wiz, ““Merrily We Roll Along“ and “Appropriate.”

    “I really think this is Broadway at its best,” he said. “There’s really something for everyone. There’s the quintessential big jukebox musical. There’s the niche moving three-hander plays. I think that this really is a smorgasbord of what Broadway can offer up, and showing it still, of course, is a major player on the art scene. And it’s here to stay.”

    A spring barrage of new shows — 14 shows opened in an 11-day span this year — is not unusual these days as producers hope their work will be fresh in the mind of voters ahead of the Tony Awards ceremony on June 16.

    There were some firsts this season, including “Here Lies Love” with Broadway’s first all-Filipino cast, which earned four nominations, including best original score for David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim. And seven openly autistic actors starred in “How to Dance in Ohio,” a first for Broadway but which got no Tony love.

    Academy Award winner and Tony Award-nominee Ariana DeBose, who hosted both the 2023 and 2022 ceremonies, will be back this year and will produce and choreograph the opening number.

    Like last year, the three-hour main telecast will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. EDT/5 p.m.-8 p.m. PDT with a pre-show on Pluto TV, and some Tony Awards handed out there.

    ___

    Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    Mark Kennedy, Associated Press

    Source link

  • Opportunity for female directors at 2024 Tony Award nominations

    Opportunity for female directors at 2024 Tony Award nominations

    After a final, frantic push to open the last raft of Broadway shows before the eligibility window closed, the final list of almost 40 plays and musicals vying for Tony Award nominations this year are ready and hoping for their closeups.Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry will announce nominees for the 26 competitive Tony Awards on Tuesday morning, the result of voting by the 60 members of the nominating committee.Video above: Actors from ‘The Lion King’ share their experiences of being on a Broadway stageThe spring barrage — 14 shows opened in an 11-day span this year — is not unusual these days as producers hope their work will be fresh in the mind of voters ahead of the Tony Awards ceremony on June 16. But no clear single musical juggernaut has emerged, like the megahit “Hamilton” in 2016 or a critical darling like last year’s “Kimberly Akimbo.”One possible change this year indicates women may be poised to outnumber the men for the first time in directing nominations. Nearly half of the 21 musicals — new and revivals — that opened this season were helmed by a woman or featured a team of co-directors where at least one was a woman. Five out of the season’s 16 new plays and play revivals were also staged by women.The 2022 Tony Awards currently holds the record for most female directing nominees, with four total across the two races. Only 10 women have gone on to win the directing crown.The eligible shows this season include reworking of existing movies or books — “The Outsiders,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Notebook,” “Back to the Future” and “Water for Elephants” — and new works transferring over to Broadway, like the suffrage play “Suffs,” the dance-heavy Sufjan Stevens-scored “Illinoise,” the rock band imploding “Stereophonic” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” loosely based on Alicia Keys’ life.There are some coincidences, like that Huey Lewis & The News songs are heard at both his jukebox show “The Heart of Rock and Roll” and an unconnected musical of “Back to the Future.” Rachel McAdams, who made a breakthrough in the film version of “The Notebook,” is competing against the musical version of that movie a few blocks away in the play “Mary Jane.” Plus, “The Wiz” and “Wicked” now share Broadway, and Nazis are in both “Cabaret” and a musical about artist Tamara de Lempicka.This season attracted plenty of big stars to Broadway in addition to McAdams, like Jessica Lange and Jim Parsons in “Mother Play,” Steve Carell in a revival of “Uncle Vanya,” Eddie Redmayne in a new “Cabaret,” Liev Schreiber in “Doubt,” “Succession” star Jeremy Strong in a revival of “An Enemy of the People” and Sarah Paulson in the play “Appropriate.”There were some firsts this season, including “Here Lies Love” with Broadway’s first all-Filipino cast, as well as mostly Filipino producers, including singer H.E.R., comedian Jo Koy and Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de.Ap. And seven openly autistic actors starred in “How to Dance in Ohio,” a first for Broadway.Big musical revival splashes were made by “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” “The Wiz,” “The Who’s Tommy,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” and the fourth revival of “Cabaret.” Academy Award winner and Tony Award-nominee Ariana DeBose, who hosted both the 2023 and 2022 ceremonies, will be back this year and will produce and choreograph the opening number.This year’s location — the David H. Koch Theater — is the home of New York City Ballet and in the same sprawling building complex as Lincoln Square Theater, which houses the Broadway venue Beaumont Theater.Like last year, the three-hour main telecast will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. EDT/5 p.m.-8 p.m. PDT with a pre-show on Pluto TV, and some Tony Awards handed out there on June 16.This season’s Broadway numbers — about $1.4 billion in grosses and 11.1 million tickets — is running slightly less than the 2022-23 season, off about 4% in grosses and down 1% in tickets.

    After a final, frantic push to open the last raft of Broadway shows before the eligibility window closed, the final list of almost 40 plays and musicals vying for Tony Award nominations this year are ready and hoping for their closeups.

    Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry will announce nominees for the 26 competitive Tony Awards on Tuesday morning, the result of voting by the 60 members of the nominating committee.

    Video above: Actors from ‘The Lion King’ share their experiences of being on a Broadway stage

    The spring barrage — 14 shows opened in an 11-day span this year — is not unusual these days as producers hope their work will be fresh in the mind of voters ahead of the Tony Awards ceremony on June 16. But no clear single musical juggernaut has emerged, like the megahit “Hamilton” in 2016 or a critical darling like last year’s “Kimberly Akimbo.”

    One possible change this year indicates women may be poised to outnumber the men for the first time in directing nominations. Nearly half of the 21 musicals — new and revivals — that opened this season were helmed by a woman or featured a team of co-directors where at least one was a woman. Five out of the season’s 16 new plays and play revivals were also staged by women.

    The 2022 Tony Awards currently holds the record for most female directing nominees, with four total across the two races. Only 10 women have gone on to win the directing crown.

    The eligible shows this season include reworking of existing movies or books — “The Outsiders,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Notebook,” “Back to the Future” and “Water for Elephants” — and new works transferring over to Broadway, like the suffrage play “Suffs,” the dance-heavy Sufjan Stevens-scored “Illinoise,” the rock band imploding “Stereophonic” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” loosely based on Alicia Keys’ life.

    There are some coincidences, like that Huey Lewis & The News songs are heard at both his jukebox show “The Heart of Rock and Roll” and an unconnected musical of “Back to the Future.” Rachel McAdams, who made a breakthrough in the film version of “The Notebook,” is competing against the musical version of that movie a few blocks away in the play “Mary Jane.” Plus, “The Wiz” and “Wicked” now share Broadway, and Nazis are in both “Cabaret” and a musical about artist Tamara de Lempicka.

    This season attracted plenty of big stars to Broadway in addition to McAdams, like Jessica Lange and Jim Parsons in “Mother Play,” Steve Carell in a revival of “Uncle Vanya,” Eddie Redmayne in a new “Cabaret,” Liev Schreiber in “Doubt,” “Succession” star Jeremy Strong in a revival of “An Enemy of the People” and Sarah Paulson in the play “Appropriate.”

    There were some firsts this season, including “Here Lies Love” with Broadway’s first all-Filipino cast, as well as mostly Filipino producers, including singer H.E.R., comedian Jo Koy and Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de.Ap. And seven openly autistic actors starred in “How to Dance in Ohio,” a first for Broadway.

    Big musical revival splashes were made by “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” “The Wiz,” “The Who’s Tommy,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” and the fourth revival of “Cabaret.”

    Academy Award winner and Tony Award-nominee Ariana DeBose, who hosted both the 2023 and 2022 ceremonies, will be back this year and will produce and choreograph the opening number.

    This year’s location — the David H. Koch Theater — is the home of New York City Ballet and in the same sprawling building complex as Lincoln Square Theater, which houses the Broadway venue Beaumont Theater.

    Like last year, the three-hour main telecast will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. EDT/5 p.m.-8 p.m. PDT with a pre-show on Pluto TV, and some Tony Awards handed out there on June 16.

    This season’s Broadway numbers — about $1.4 billion in grosses and 11.1 million tickets — is running slightly less than the 2022-23 season, off about 4% in grosses and down 1% in tickets.

    Source link

  • “I Am Just Starting My Career”: Jesse Williams on Life After 11 Years of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

    “I Am Just Starting My Career”: Jesse Williams on Life After 11 Years of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

    Despite shooting to stardom after years on Grey’s Anatomy, Jesse Williams feels his career is just getting started. 

    Well known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the long-running ABC drama, Williams was eager to try something new and decided to take his chance on the revival of Richard Greenberg’s 2002 baseball play, Take Me Out. Upon signing on to his very first play, little did Williams know that the revival would be a smash hit, leading to multiple Tony nominations and a highly demanded second run.

    Halfway through the second turn of the Broadway show, Williams reflected on the freeing nature of his onstage experience and how, prior to starring on Broadway, his tenure on the hit TV show was actually something of a roadblock from other opportunities.

    “Honestly, I feel like a kid just starting his career, because I am just starting my career,” Williams told Vanity Fair. “As soon as I started acting, essentially, I was immediately on Grey’s Anatomy, and I did that for 11 years straight, 10 months a year. Unavailable for anything else. So it’s all I did and knew.”

    The actor went on to compare working on the TV drama to studying at “an amazing school” but being unable to leave the school and go outside to join the rest of the students on the playground. “I was in school…an amazing school, looking out the window, watching everybody else play and try things and fall and hurt themselves and try again and win—and I didn’t really do that. I was in an amazing castle, but I still couldn’t really leave. And so now, to leave, I feel like a kid.”

    Unlike child actors, or those who were born into the business, former schoolteacher Williams scored his big break on what is now the longest-running medical prime-time drama when he was approaching 30. And while grateful for his time on Grey’s Anatomy, the Tony-nominated actor credits his Take Me Out experience with helping him to further perfect his craft in a new medium and open up a world of new acting opportunities.

    (left to right): Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mason Marzac) and Jesse Williams (Darren Lemming) in Take Me Out.By Jeremy Daniel/ Courtesy of the TAKE ME OUT Production.

    Morgan Evans

    Source link

  • Today in History: October 22, JFK reveals missile bases

    Today in History: October 22, JFK reveals missile bases

    Today in History

    Today is Saturday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2022. There are 70 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Oct. 22, 1962, in a nationally broadcast address, President John F. Kennedy revealed the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the Communist island nation.

    On this date:

    In 1836, Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.

    In 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” was published by Scribner’s of New York.

    In 1928, Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover spoke of the “American system of rugged individualism” in a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

    In 1934, bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was shot to death by federal agents and local police at a farm near East Liverpool, Ohio.

    In 1968, Apollo 7 returned safely from Earth orbit, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

    In 1979, the U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.

    In 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

    In 1995, the largest gathering of world leaders in history marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

    In 2001, a second Washington, D.C., postal worker, Joseph P. Curseen, died of inhalation anthrax.

    In 2014, a gunman shot and killed a soldier standing guard at a war memorial in Ottawa, then stormed the Canadian Parliament before he was shot and killed by the usually ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.

    In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first pennant since 1945, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. (The Cubs would go on to beat Cleveland in the World Series in seven games.)

    In 2020, in the closing debate of the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden clashed over how to tame the raging coronavirus; Trump declared that the virus would “go away,” while Biden countered that the nation was heading toward a “dark winter.”

    Ten years ago: President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate, held in Boca Raton, Florida, accusing him of “wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map”; the Republican coolly responded, “Attacking me is not an agenda” for dealing with a dangerous world. An Italian court convicted seven experts of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn residents of the risk before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people. (The verdicts were later overturned.) American Indian activist Russell Means, 72, died in Rapid City, South Dakota.

    Five years ago: The latest allegations of sexual harassment or assault in Hollywood targeted writer and director James Toback; the Los Angeles Times reported that he had been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women. U.S.-backed fighters in Syria captured the country’s largest oil field from the Islamic State group, marking a major advance against the extremists. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scored a major victory in national elections that decisively returned his ruling coalition to power.

    One year ago: The Supreme Court allowed a Texas law banning most abortions to remain in effect while agreeing to hear arguments in the case. Florida businessman Lev Parnas, who helped Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, was convicted in New York of campaign finance crimes. Actor Peter Scolari, best known for his role on TV’s “Newhart,” died in New York at 66 after a two-year battle with cancer. Jay Black, front man for the 1960s rock band Jay and the Americans, died at 82.

    Today’s Birthdays: Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale is 86. Actor Christopher Lloyd is 84. Actor Derek Jacobi is 84. Actor Tony Roberts is 83. Movie director Jan (yahn) de Bont is 79. Actor Catherine Deneuve is 79. Rock musician Eddie Brigati is 77. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is 75. Actor Jeff Goldblum is 70. Rock musician Greg Hawkes is 70. Movie director Bill Condon is 67. Actor Luis Guzman is 66. Actor-writer-producer Todd Graff is 63. Rock musician Cris Kirkwood is 62. Actor-comedian Bob Odenkirk is 60. Olympic gold medal figure skater Brian Boitano is 59. Christian singer TobyMac is 58. Singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding (Wesley Stace) is 57. Actor Valeria Golino is 56. Comedian Carlos Mencia is 55. Country singer Shelby Lynne is 54. Reggae rapper Shaggy is 54. Movie director Spike Jonze is 53. Rapper Tracey Lee is 52. Actor Saffron Burrows is 50. Actor Carmen Ejogo is 49. Former MLB player Ichiro Suzuki (EE’-cheer-oh soo-ZOO’-kee) is 49. Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson is 47. Christian rock singer-musician Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) is 46. Actor Michael Fishman is 41. Talk show host Michael Essany is 40. MLB infielder Robinson Canó is 40. Rock musician Rickard Goransson (Carolina Liar) is 39. Rock musician Zac Hanson (Hanson) is 37. Actor Corey Hawkins is 34. Actor Jonathan Lipnicki is 32. Actor Sofia Vassilieva (vas-ihl-lee-A’-vuh) is 30. Actor Elias Harger is 15.

    Source link