Jeff Whitty

Jeff Whitty is an American playwright, book writer, actor, and screenwriter born on September 30, 1971, in Coos Bay, Oregon, where he grew up as the fifth of six children. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in 1993 and subsequently relocated to New York City, where he completed a master's degree from New York University's Graduate Acting Program in 1997. After approximately two decades in New York, he moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and currently lives on Cape Cod.

Whitty's first produced musical, Avenue Q, opened at Broadway's John Golden Theatre in 2003 and ran commercially in New York City for sixteen years. Written with composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, the show earned Whitty the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. The production generated dozens of international stagings and two national tours, and ran for six years on London's West End under producer Cameron Mackintosh. Whitty subsequently wrote the libretto for Bring It On: The Musical, a free adaptation of the film series featuring an original story by Whitty, music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and lyrics by Amanda Green and Miranda. Directed by Andy Blankenbuehler with music direction by Alex Lacamoire, the show premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta on January 16, 2011, before embarking on a national tour that began at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on October 30, 2011. A revised version opened for a limited run at Broadway's St. James Theatre on August 1, 2012, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical in 2013.

Whitty also wrote the libretto for a musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels, with music by Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters. The project was workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2009 National Music Theater Conference before opening in a limited run at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on May 18, 2011. Directed by Jason Moore, the production featured Judy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe, Mary Birdsong, and Wesley Taylor, and extended twice before closing on July 10. Whitty received the 2011 Bay Area Critics Circle award for his work on the production.

In 2015, Whitty premiered an original version of Head Over Heels at the 1,100-seat Allen Elizabethan Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where it opened on June 13. He conceived the jukebox musical as a hybrid of Sir Philip Sidney's The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and the catalog of the Go-Go's, with co-writer and music supervisor Carmel Dean. The production sold out its five-month run within two weeks of opening. In 2016, Whitty departed the project when director Michael Mayer assumed directing duties, installed Tom Kitt as music supervisor, and replaced Whitty's collaborators. A substantially revised version, with a script credited to James MacGruder, opened at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco before reaching Broadway on July 26, 2018. In March 2023, Whitty published an essay titled "Grand Theft Musical" alleging exploitation, threats, harassment, and theft of royalties by the show's producers, his agent, and his lawyer.

Whitty's first produced screenplay, Can You Ever Forgive Me, was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures in 2018. Co-written with Nicole Holofcener and adapted from a memoir by Lee Israel, the film was directed by Marielle Heller and starred Melissa McCarthy as Israel and Richard E. Grant as Jack Hock. The screenplay earned Whitty and Holofcener nominations for the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with wins including the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay, the Film Independent Spirit Award, and the Satellite Award.

Whitty's stage plays include The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, commissioned by and premiered at South Coast Repertory in January 2006. In 2012, he played the title role in a 25-performance production of that play by New York company Exit, Pursued by a Bear, with Billy Porter in the co-leading role of Mammy — both roles having been originally written for and performed by women. Additional plays include The Plank Project, the multi-play cycle Balls, The Hiding Place, which received its New York debut at the Atlantic Theater Company, and Suicide Weather. His theatrical acting credits include productions at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theatre Workshop, as well as appearances in New York productions of plays by Amy Freed, including The Beard of Avon and Freedomland. He has also appeared in small roles in the films Garmento, Lisa Picard is Famous, and Shortbus. His older brother, George Whitty, is a jazz musician and producer who has won multiple Grammy and Emmy Awards.