APRIL’S SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER:
PENNY MARSHALL
Director/Producer/Actress

PENNY MARSHALL is a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. Known for her candor, New York wit, and tremendous directing, producing, and acting skills, the younger sibling of director, Garry Marshall holds her own, hands down, in Tinseltown.

Penny Marshall started as an actress and has Penny has gone on to direct and produce Academy Award nominated films, garnering the respect and admiration of her peers along the way.

Penny most recently developed the Russell Crowe boxing drama Cinderella Man for Universal Pictures, on which she served as producer, which was directed by Ron Howard. She also directed Columbia Pictures’ Riding in Cars with Boys, starring Drew Barrymore, and produced the big screen version of Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. She just finished directing Academy Award nominee Felicity Huffman in 3 webisodes (a revolutionary new medium).

Penny Marshall made her feature film directorial debut with Jumpin’ Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Tom Hanks starred in her production of Big, which garnered him his first Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor, and the film earned nearly $115 million in box office receipts. She then directed Awakenings, which was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Picture and starred Robert De Niro (who earned an Oscar® nomination for his performance) and Robin Williams. Penny also directed Renaissance Man, starring Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines and Mark Wahlberg. She subsequently directed The Preacher’s Wife, starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.

Inspired by the little known story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the ‘40s, Penny directed and executive-produced A League of Their Own, which starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna. It was a major box office hit and the second Marshall-directed film to surpass the $100 million mark. It was later turned into a TV series for TriStar Television with Marshall as executive producer and director of the pilot episode. Under the banner of her production company, Parkway Productions, along with partner Elliot Abbott, Marshall executive-produced the comedy Calendar Girl, starring Jason Priestley.

Penny was born in the Bronx. She attended the University of New Mexico, majoring in math and psychology. She dropped out when she got married and had a child. She then moved to Hollywood and made her debut in The Danny Thomas Hour, a drama anthology series. During the next several years, Penny appeared in several small feature film and television roles. She had recurring roles on Paul Sand’s Friends and Lovers and The Odd Couple. An appearance with Cindy Williams in a segment of the series Happy Days introduced the characters of Laverne and Shirley, which spun off into their own landmark, long-running comedy series.

Penny’s other television credits included regular roles on Mork & Mindy, Taxi, The Bob Newhart Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She also starred in three television movies: More Than Friends, Love Thy Neighbor and Challenge of a Lifetime. Marshall directed two episodes of Laverne & Shirley; a pilot called Working Stiffs, starring Jim Belushi and Michael Keaton; and two episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show.

Penny’s off-Broadway experience includes the starring role in a production of Eden Court with Ellen Barkin. She occasionally takes cameo roles in other directors’ feature films, such as opposite her brother Garry in Hocus Pocus and playing a director herself in Get Shorty, as well as the Albert Brooks film Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World.