Years active 1986–present Movies Past Midnight | Role Film director Name Jan Eliasberg | |
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Full Name Jan Pringle Eliasberg Born January 6, 1954 (age 70) ( 1954-01-06 ) New York City Occupation Director, producer and writer Spouse(s) Neil Alan Friedman(1991–2008) Similar People Dana Eskelson, Guy Boyd, Tom Wright, Clancy Brown, Ernie Lively | ||
Jan Eliasberg '74 - THIS IS WHY
Jan Pringle Eliasberg (born January 6, 1954) is an American film, theatre, and television director and writer.
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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. 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). In 1973, she co-founded Second Stage at Wesleyan, an organization of students dedicated to producing theater and other performances, which may be the country's first solely student-run volunteer theater organization.
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 has had a career in theatre, directing the plays Spring Awakening, Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler, The Threepenny Opera, the American premiere of Howard Brenton's Sore Throats and The Importance of Being Earnest.
Personal life
In 1991, Eliasberg married Neil Alan Friedman, a studio executive at Columbia Pictures. They divorced in 2008. They have a daughter, Sariel Hana Friedman, a published writer, artist and graphic designer, and student at Wesleyan University, as well as the founder and editor of the feminist literary magazine, The Riveter Review.