David Pittu

David Jonathan Pittu (born April 4, 1967) is an American actor, writer, and director who grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut. While still a high school senior, he was named a finalist in the NFAA's Arts Recognition Talent Search in Drama. He went on to earn his degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1989.

Pittu's Broadway career spans from 1999 to 2016 and encompasses both plays and musicals. He received two Tony Award nominations during that period: one in 2007 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Bertolt Brecht in Harold Prince's Lovemusik, and another in 2008 for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his multiple-role performance in Is He Dead?, the Mark Twain comedy adapted by David Ives and directed by Michael Blakemore. He also appeared on Broadway in The Front Page and in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center in 2006. His work in David Hare's Stuff Happens at the Public Theater that same year, in which he played Paul Wolfowitz among other roles under the direction of Daniel Sullivan, earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Prior to his Broadway work, Pittu played Leo Frank in the national tour of Jason Robert Brown's Parade, directed by Harold Prince, a performance that earned him the 2001 National Broadway Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He later starred in the Broadway production of Parade as well.

Among his other stage credits, Pittu appeared in Harold Pinter's Celebration and The Room at the Atlantic Theater Company Off-Broadway in 2005, and in Bill Cain's Equivocation at Manhattan Theater Club in 2010, directed by Garry Hynes. He took on David Ives' The Heir Apparent at CSC in 2014, directed by John Rando, and participated in Stephen Sondheim's Company as part of the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration in 2002. In 2009, his performance in Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theatre, directed by Daniel Sullivan, earned him the St. Clair Bayfield Award. He also appeared in Girl From the North Country at the Public Theater in 2018, playing Reverend Marlowe.

Pittu has performed in several Encores! staged concert productions at New York City Center, including Of Thee I Sing in 2007 as the French ambassador, Bells Are Ringing in 2010 as Sandor, and It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman in 2013 as Dr. Abner Sedgwick. He has additionally performed in numerous concerts with Ted Sperling's MasterVoices at City Center and Carnegie Hall.

As a writer, Pittu created What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, a musical satire centered on a perpetually struggling composer-lyricist, for which he also wrote the lyrics, with music by Randy Redd. The show premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in September 2008, received two Lucille Lortel Award nominations including one for Best Off-Broadway Musical, and appeared on both the Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times Top 10 Best Theater lists for 2008. Pittu received the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award in 2010.

His work as an audiobook narrator includes Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch, for which he received two Audie Awards in 2014: Best Literary Fiction and Best Male Solo Performance. His television credits include Halston on Netflix and Capote and the Swans on FX/Hulu, as well as American Horror Stories on FX. Pittu also serves as one of the trustees of the literary estate of George S. Kaufman, alongside theater historian and NYU professor Laurence Maslon.