Jan Eliasberg

Jan Eliasberg
Born Jan Pringle Eliasberg
(1954-01-06) January 6, 1954
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education Wesleyan University (BA)
Yale University (MFA)
Occupation Director, producer and writer
Years active 1986–present
Spouse(s) Neil Friedman (1991–2008)

Jan Pringle Eliasberg (born January 6, 1954)[1] is an American film, theatre, and television director and writer.

Life and career

Eliasberg is from New York City. She is the daughter of Ann Pringle Harris, an English teacher at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Jay Eliasberg, a retired vice president for research at the Columbia Broadcast Group.[2] She has a brother, Peter Eliasberg, the managing attorney for the ACLU of Southern California and a sister, Kristin Eliasberg, an acclaimed modern dancer and writer.

She graduated magna cum laude from Wesleyan University (at the age of 20 in 1974) and earned a Master's degree at Yale School of Drama (1981).[2][3]

In 1973, she co-founded Second Stage at Wesleyan,[4] an organization of students dedicated to producing theater and other performances, which may be the country's first solely student-run volunteer theater organization.[5][6]

She began her television directing career in 1986 directing an episode of Cagney & Lacey. Later that year, she was hand-picked by Michael Mann to direct an episode of Miami Vice, becoming the first of only three female directors of that series. She directed two more Miami Vice episodes in 1987, including "Contempt of Court" starring Stanley Tucci.

She was also the first woman to direct Michael Mann's Crime Story, as well as Wiseguy. Her other television directing credits include multiple episodes of Nashville, The Magicians, Blue Bloods, NCIS;Los Angeles, Parenthood, Criminal Minds, 21 Jump Street, Dawson's Creek, Sisters (also a producer and writer), Early Edition, Party of Five, among many other notable series.

She was fired from directing How I Got into College only five days into filming.[7]

She has directing such plays as Spring Awakening, Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler, The Threepenny Opera, the American premiere of Howard Brenton's Sore Throats and The Importance of Being Earnest.[8]

Personal life

In 1991, Eliasberg married Neil Alan Friedman, a studio executive at Columbia Pictures.[2] They divorced in 2008. They have a daughter, Sariel Hana Friedman, a published writer, artist and graphic designer.

Directorial work

Television

Films

  • Lovers, Partners & Spies (Independent film, 1988)
  • Past Midnight (Feature film, 1991) starring Natasha Richardson, Rutger Hauer, Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti

Theatre

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Public Records Index Vol 1 & 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Jan Eliasberg and Neil Friedman Wed, The New York Times, May 27, 1991.
  3. ↑ Jan Eliasberg Expands Career From Stage To Film A Director Broadens Her Horizons, latimes.com, January 25, 1985; accessed January 31, 2018.
  4. ↑ Guide to the Second Stage Theater Records, 1973 - (ongoing)
  5. ↑ Wesleyan University Second Stage
  6. ↑ Wesleyan University (pgs 4-6, and footnotes 5, 6)
  7. ↑ Cieply, Michael (March 11, 1988). "A Fired Woman Film Director--New Questions, Issue Continues". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ↑ Jan Eliasberg Biography, FilmReference.com; accessed January 31, 2018.
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