Founded in 1945 by Herbert Berghof, the HB Studio is a school that offers professional training in the performing arts. Located in Greenwich Village in New York City, its curriculum includes classes in a variety of areas, including acting, directing, playwrighting, screenwriting, musical theatre, movement and dance, puppetry, dialect study, and scene analysis. Select classes require an audition for admission.
In 1948, Uta Hagen joined the Studio as Berghof's artistic partner, and the two wed ten years later. Her master classes led to the writing of her books Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor.
As of the Winter 2008 semester, the faculty includes Mark Blum, Helen Gallagher, Anne Jackson, Donna McKechnie, Austin Pendleton, Amy Wright, and Louis Zorich.
Notable alumni include Jeff Bridges, F. Murray Abraham, Marco Aponte, Anne Bancroft, Candice Bergen, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Culp, Whoopi Goldberg, George Roy Hill, Hal Holbrook, Harvey Keitel, Jessica Lange, Jack Lemmon, Kenneth Lonergan, Anne Meara, Marsha Mason, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Cynthia Nixon, Geraldine Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charles Nelson Reilly, Christopher Reeve, Jason Robards, Herbert Ross, Kyra Sedgwick, Maureen Stapleton, Jerry Stiller, Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver and Gene Wilder.