Jeff Whitty

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Jeff Whitty is an American playwright who lives in New York City. He was born September 30, 1971, and was raised in Coos Bay, Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1993, and received a Master's degree from New York University in 1997. He is openly gay.^[1] He won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a musical for Avenue Q, written with Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, which opened on Broadway in 2003. His plays include The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler which was commissioned by and received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in January, 2006; The Plank Project (a parody of documentary theater pieces like The Laramie Project); the romantic New York comedy The Hiding Place; the dark comedy Suicide Weather; and Zora, based on a true story that appeared on NPR's This American Life. He is developing Freedom City, an original movie musical with music by André 3000 of Outkast.

Whitty is also an actor, having appeared in New York productions of plays by Amy Freed, including The Beard of Avon and Freedomland.

To keep himself financially afloat during the writing process of Avenue Q, Whitty worked as a go-go dancer at bars across Manhattan, including The Park and The Slide.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Letter to Jay Leno

On April 20, 2006, Jeff Whitty wrote a letter to NBC's Tonight Show host, Jay Leno, criticizing the performer for his use of homosexuals as material for his monologues and jokes. The letter, which Whitty only sent to three people, soon spread across the internet and led to Whitty being interviewed on CNN the following Wednesday.^[2] Within a week Jay Leno called the playwright and the two had a conversation. Whitty described the outcome by saying "comedy is tough."^{[citation needed]}