December 8 - Mel & El
(comedy duo)

MEL & EL are Melanie Adelman and Ellie Dvorkin - real life best friends who have known each other since they were 12 years old. Described as a musical Laverne & Shirley meets Sex & the City, MEL & EL are a riotously funny duo who have quickly become an NYC cult phenomenon.

Their critically acclaimed show - MEL & EL: THIS SHOW RHYMES - was developed in conjunction with Cannery Works and enjoyed a year-long run at The Duplex in NYC's West Village. Their next show, MEL & EL: SHOW & TELL, developed in part at New York Stage & Film, premiered at Ars Nova to rave reviews. MEL & EL: GAY MARRIED headlined Comix and culminated in the pair being chosen as one of the Village Voice's BEST OF NYC. The ladies released their debut musical comedy album, MEL & EL: SHE'S MY BITCH at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater which is available on iTunes.

Mel & El can be seen live in MEL & EL: OUR TIME OF THE MONTH at Comix on the first Thursday of every month. They are currently shooting a web series titled THE MEL & EL SHOW which will premiere in early 2011. Their website is www.melandel.com

December 15 - Steven DeRosa
(Screenwriter, author)

Steven DeRosa is a screenwriter and the author of several books including Writing with Hitchcock, which is currently being developed into motion picture. He has lectured on screenwriting and film at NYU's Hitchcock Centennial Conference, The American Museum of the Moving Image, Film Forum, and New School University, and has been a contributing writer to the Writers Guild of America Awards.

In addition to writing, Steven can be seen on-screen in the feature length documentary, The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style, available on Warner Home Video’s 50th Anniversary Blu-ray of North by Northwest, as well as in featurettes on Paramount’s DVD release of To Catch a Thief.

You can join his Writing with Hitchcock Facebook community at facebook.com/writingwithhitch

November 8 - Howard Oboler
(Film educator)

Howard received his B.A. Degree from Cornell where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for study abroad. He spent the major portion of his business career with the international accounting firm Ernst & Young where he was a Management Consultant. After retiring, he returned to academics to pursue a Masters Degree in American Studies at Columbia University.  For the past 15 years, Howard has been teaching adult education courses that focus on film, theatre, and literature at the 92nd St. Y, NYU and other institutions in New York City. He also teaches at various venues in Florida during the winter months.

October 25 - Jeryl Brunner
("intrepid" journaliste)

Jeryl Brunner has worked as a professional journalist and writer for more than15 years. She joined In Style magazine in 1994 and contributed to nearly every section interviewing scores of celebrities. Since beginning her freelance career in 2003, she has covered travel, trends, fashion, theater, and entertainment - you name it. She has contributed to many publications including National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Delta Sky, Elle.com, ForbesTraveler.com, Four Seasons, Us Weekly, Hamptons, and O magazine. Her reporting has taken her to the Lord of the Rings premiere in Wellington, New Zealand, to a luxurious spa in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and to the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh painted Starry Night. She is currently writing a book about New York's notables and their favorite things to do in the city which debuts in Fall 2011 (Globe Pequot). Jeryl is a graduate of New York University. She downloads far too many show tunes on her iPod, and she lives in New York City. http://jerylbrunner.com

October 19 - RENO
(comic, actor)

RENO is a stream of consciousness style solo comedic performer living in New York City.  Her evening length shows have had several runs Off-Broadway, both commercially and at non-profit venues and tour regularly to the leading regional theaters, museums and performance spaces.  She adapted her show RENO IN RAGE AND REHAB into an ACE Award nominated (“Best Writing for an Entertainment Special”) HBO comedy hour.  Her show, RENO ONCE REMOVED was commissioned by Lincoln Center for their Serious Fun Festival and sold out with rave reviews.  It subsequently moved to the Joseph Papp Public Theater and continued on around the country. She has made other, short-form tragi-comic essays for various outlets such as PBS, VH-1, Comedy Central and National Public Radio, and occasionally contributes written articles to magazines, such as MS.  For more information, visit:  www.citizenreno.com

October 6-Peter Greenberg
(CBS Early Show Travel Editor and International Man of Mystery)

Peter Greenberg is America's most recognized, honored and respected front-line travel news journalist.

Peter is Travel Editor for CBS News, and appears on The Early Show and across many CBS broadcast platforms.

He is the consummate insider when it comes to reporting the travel business as news. No other journalist brings his level of expertise and extensive experience to the travel process. An Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and producer, Peter was named one of the most influential people in the travel by Travel Weekly, along with Al Gore, Bill Marriott and Richard Branson.

Peter is also host of the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio show, broadcast each week from a different remote location around the world. He is heard on more than 150 stations, Sirius/XM radio and Armed Forces Radio.

His investigative work resulted in his reporting a one-hour NBC Dateline special entitled "Black Box Mystery: The Crash of the Concorde," which premiered February 2009, revealing for the first time what really happened when the supersonic aircraft crashed outside of Paris in 2000.

Peter's books include he New York Times best-sellers Don't Go There! The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World, The Complete Travel Detective Bible, The Traveler's Diet: Eating Right and Staying Fit on the Road, Flight Crew Confidential, and Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective.

His Web site, www.PeterGreenberg.com, is one of the fastest-growing travel news sites in America.

September 20-Tom Santopietro
(Author)

Tom Santopietro is the author of Sinatra in Hollywood, Considering Doris Day (New York Times "Editor's Choice"), and The Importance of Being Barbra. He lectures on all three books around the country and performs "The Best Is Yet To Come", a tribute to Frank Sinatra, with singer/pianist Tony DeSare. A manager of over twenty Broadway shows during the past twenty-five years, he is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is extremely happy not to be practicing law, a state of affairs applauded by the American Bar Association. Next life: Wimbledon champion.

September 8 - Kevin Bleyer
& Elliott Kalan
("The Daily Show" writers)

KEVIN BLEYER is an Emmy Award-winning writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Previously, he was a writer/producer for "Dennis Miller" and "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher."  His book, "Me The People: An Order To Form a More Perfect Union" will be published by Random House in late 2011.

ELLIOTT KALAN is a comedian and Emmy Award-winning writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”.  He hosts Closely Watched Films, a monthly classic film screening series at 92YTribeca and co-hosts “The Flophouse”, a biweekly podcast devoted to discussing bad movies.

August 30 - David Sax
(writer, journalist)

David Sax is a writer and journalist originally from Toronto, Canada.  He has lived in and written from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and New York, for publications that include New York Magazine, National Public Radio, GQ, Saveur, and the New York Times, among others.  Last fall, David published his first book, Save the Deli (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), about the Jewish delicatessen business.  To research the book, David traveled to close to 200 Jewish delicatessens around the world, and became the foremost expert on this salty subject.  Save the Deli was widely publicized when it was released, becoming an LA Times Besteller, and winning the 2010 James Beard Award for Literature.  David recently got married, and will shortly move back to Toronto from New York for a life of domestic bliss and government sanctioned health care.  

Photo by Christopher Farber

July 21 - Julie James
(XM Radio host)

Julie James is an award-winning vocalist, theatre performer, voice over artist and radio personality.  Julie currently hosts “Broadway Names with Julie James” on SIRIUS XM Radio’s On Broadway channel where she takes her listeners on the town, backstage and into the studio for fun, lively conversations with the biggest and best of Broadway, including Julie Andrews, Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Kristin Chenoweth, Harvey Fierstein, Bernadette Peters, Donna McKechnie, Ben Vereen, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, the Cast of GLEE, Harry Connick, Jr. and many others.  Julie has also performed internationally, singing the National Anthem at Fenway Park for an audience of 34,000, with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Goodspeed Opera House, Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, at New York’s famed Central Park Summerstage, even for the President of Kazakhstan.  With an attention-getting vocal and visual presentation, eloquence and quick-wit, Julie has hosted hundreds of events across America for clients including Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Lord & Taylor, and she was the exclusive spokeswoman for Tommy Hilfiger Woman for two years.  Julie’s personality, stage presence and vocal style brought her to SIRIUS XM Radio where her voice is heard by millions each day on platform-wide voiceovers, jingles, and parody songs for The Howard Stern Show, in addition to being the Program Director for the On Broadway and Metropolitan Opera Radio stations.  Julie lives in New York City and performs with her husband in an original, musical duo, The Maxes.

June 7 - Adam Philips
(Hitchcock guru)

A lifelong film enthusiast, Adam Philips launched the website “Hitchcock and Me” in late 2009 with one simple goal: to watch and blog about the 52 movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock in one year. In April, Philips began the first-ever “39 Steps Fest” in conjunction with the off-Broadway production featuring over 150 characters played by a cast of four.

By day, Philips work at DC Comics. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, creativity coach Julia Roberts, and their three children. Subscribe to his blog at www.hitchcockandme.wordpress.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/arphilips.

About “The 39 Steps Fest”

Philips launched his “39 Steps Fest” in April with daily blog posts celebrating the world-famous spy story “The 39 Steps.” The fest includes prize giveaways and discount tickets to the stage show, and spotlights every aspect of “The 39 Steps,” starting with the ingenious 1915 novel by John Buchan, and showcasing movie trailers, posters and lobby cards, a downloadable radio adaptation of the movie, parodies starring Saturday Night Live veteran Dana Carvey and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, to the suspenseful BBC remake of 2008, and culminating with the hilarious, Tony Award-winning stage version.

May 24 - Stone & Stone
(Comedians)

The Stone twins, Adam and Todd, created their two man stand-up comedy act called "Stone and Stone" during their sophomore year at college, where they graduated in 2005.  Since then, they have been featured on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, where they made it to the semi-final round in Las Vegas, a national Verizon FiOS commercial, and most recently in a few AtomTV videos on Comedy Central, which they also wrote.

www.stoneandstone.org