Julie Taymor

director, 1991 MacArthur Award

Theater, film and opera director Julie Taymor's most recent film is *Frida*, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina. The film garnered six Oscar nominations, winning two. Taymor made her feature film directorial debut in 1999 with *Titus*, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Based on Shakespeare's play, *Titus Andronicus*, her adapted screenplay is published in an illustrated book by Newmarket Press. On her work for the stage, Taymor has received numerous awards for her play, *The Lion King*, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theater in 1997, including two Tony Awards: for best direction of a musical and for her original costume designs. The Lion King most recently premiered in South Africa and opens in Paris in October 2007. Taymor's stage production of *Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus* was produced off- Broadway by Theatre For a New Audience in 1994. Other directing credits include *The Tempest*, *The Taming of the Shrew*, *The Transposed Heads*, and* Liberty's Taken*, an original musical co-created with David Suehsdorf and Elliot Goldenthal. In 1991 Taymor received a MacArthur genius Fellowship. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, the first Annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theater, and the 1990 Brandeis Creative Arts Award. An illustrated book on her career, *Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire*, was recently expanded and revised by Harry N. Abrams. Her book, *The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway*, is published by Hyperion. An illustrated book, *Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film*, is available from Newmarket Press.