Stephen Belber (born March 3, 1967) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director.
Contents |
Belber was born in Washington, D.C.. He studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and moved to New York at the age of 25. There he unwittingly moved in with a roommate with AIDS, and helped nurse him for two years until he died.[1] He held a variety of jobs including waiter, substitute teacher, and wire service operator for the United Nations.[2] His first show in New York was a solo show entitled "Psychotic Busboy Blues". He went on to attend Playwrights Horizons theatre school where he worked on his third solo show "One Million Butterflies". In 1994 he was accepted to the play writing program at The Juilliard School where he produced his first multipart play "Stone Cold Lyricism".
In 2000 he was the winner of the Fringe NYC Overall Excellence Award in playwriting for "Drifting Elegant." Also in 2000, the Actors Theatre of Louisville produced Belber's Tape at the Humana Festival of New American Plays. He then wrote the screenplay for the 2001 film adaptation of the play Tape, directed by Richard Linklater. Belber's next major project in 2001 came from working with the Tectonic Theatre Project. There he researched, was an associate writer, and acted in "The Laramie Project," a play and later a film written in response to Matthew Shepard’s fatal beating in Laramie, Wyoming. Between 2002 and 2003, Belber wrote for the US TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Belber's Broadway debut came in 2004 with his play "Match". Belber's other plays include "The Transparency of Val", "The Wake", "Through Fred", "The Death of Frank", "Mel and Gene", "A small melodramatic story", "McReele", and "Stabbing". His films include "Drifting Elegant", and Management.