Fisher Stevens Biography

Fisher Stevens (born Steven Fisher; November 27, 1963) is an American actor, director, producer and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Chuck Fishman on Early Edition. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love. In addition, he has directed the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary Before the Flood, which is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, has screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and will be screened by National Geographic.

Early life

He was born Steven Fisher in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sally, a painter and AIDS activist, and Norman Fisher, a furniture executive. His father is Jewish, and Stevens has described himself as a "thin, white Jewish kid from Chicago".

Career

He co-founded the Naked Angels Theater Company with longtime friends Rob Morrow, Nicole Burdette, Pippin Parker, Charles Landry, Nancy Travis and Ned Eisenberg in 1986. He also co-founded Greene Street Films, a film-production company located in Tribeca, New York City, in 1996. Stevens performed as Edgar Allan Poe on Lou Reed's album The Raven in 2003. He is also an accomplished harmonica player.

As an actor, he is known for his portrayals of Chuck Fishman on Early Edition, Seamus O'Neill on Key West, Eugene "The Plague" Belford in Hackers, Iggy in Super Mario Bros., Hawk Ganz in The Flamingo Kid, and Ben Jabituya/Jahveri in Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2. His television credits include Columbo, Frasier, Friends, Law & Order, Key West, Damages, and Lost. He appeared on two episodes of the television series Numb3rs.

Fisher also has a Broadway and off-Broadway career spanning nearly three decades. He played Jigger Craigin in the 1994 Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. He had an early success in the 1982 Broadway production of Torch Song Trilogy playing David, the adopted son of the gay protagonist played by the show's writer Harvey Fierstein, and the original Broadway production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, where he succeeded Matthew Broderick in the starring role of Eugene. Throughout his career, he has acted in and directed more than 50 stage productions.

In 2010, Fisher co-founded a new media and documentary film company, Insurgent Media, with Andrew Karsch and Erik H. Gordon.

In June 2010, Stevens made his major theatrical directing debut with John Leguizamo's one-man show, Ghetto Klown (originally called Klass Klown), which eventually ran on Broadway from March to July 2011. The two had appeared together in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Public Theater about 20 years earlier. On July 13, 2012, PBS debuted Tales From a Ghetto Klown, a documentary about the development of the show which prominently features Stevens.

In 2010, Stevens won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for co-producing The Cove.

He directed the 2012 crime story Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino and Christopher Walken.

Filmography

Films

• The Burning (1981)
• Baby It's You (1983)
• The Brother from Another Planet (1984)
• The Flamingo Kid (1984)
• My Science Project (1985)
• Short Circuit (1986)
• The Boss' Wife (1986)
• Short Circuit 2 (1988)
• Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989)
• Point of View (1990)
• Reversal of Fortune (1990)
• The Marrying Man (1991)
• Mystery Date (1991)
• Lift (1992)
• Bob Roberts (1992)
• Hero (1992)
• When the Party's Over (1993)
• Super Mario Bros. (1993)
• Nina Takes a Lover (1994)
• Only You (1994)
• Cold Fever (1995)
• Hackers (1995)
• The Pompatus of Love (1996)
• Four Days in September (also known as O Que Isso, Companheiro?) (1997)
• The Taxman (1999)
• The Tic Code (1999)
• Sam the Man (2000)
• 3 A.M. (2001)
• Prison Song (2001)
• Piero (2001)
• Undisputed (2002)
• Kill the Poor (2003)
• Uptown Girls (2003)
• Anything Else (2003)
• Easy Six (2003)
• Reply (2003)
• On the Couch (2004)
• Factotum (2005)
• Undiscovered (2005)
• Slow Burn (2005)
• Kettle of Fish (2006)
• Red Angel (2007)
• Awake (2007)
• Fake (2010)
• Rio Sex Comedy (2010)
• Rising Stars (2010)
• The Experiment (2010)
• Henry's Crime (2010)
• One for the Money (2012)
• LOL (2012)
• Movie 43 (2013)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
• Mission Blue (2014)
• Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Television films

• The Right To Remain Silent (1996)
• Jenifer (2001)
• Is It College Yet? (2002)
• The Lives They Lived (2003)
• The Green Teem (2009)

Television

• One Life to Live (early 1980s)
• Ryan's Hope (1983)
• CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984, 1 episode)
• Tall Tales & Legends (1986, 1 episode)
• Columbo "Murder, Smoke and Shadows" (1989, 1 episode, as the murderer)
• The Young Riders (1990, 1 episode)
• The General Motors Playwrights Theater (1991, 1 episode)
• Key West (1993, 13 episodes)
• Friends (1995)
• Homicide: Life on the Street (1995, 1 episode)
• Law & Order (1995, 1 episode)
• Early Edition (1996-2000, 48 episodes)
• The Hunger (2000, 1 episode)
• Frasier (2001, 1 episode)
• 100 Centre Street (2001, 1 episode)
• The Moth (2002, 1 episode)
• Hack (2002, 1 episode)
• Hope & Faith (2004, 1 episode)
• Dr. Vegas (2004, 1 episode)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004, 2007, 2 episodes)
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2008, 1 episode)
• Lost (2008, 2010, 5 episodes)
• Medium (2009, 1 episode)
• Numb3rs (2009, 2 episodes)
• Ugly Betty (2010, 1 episode)
• The Mentalist (2010, 1 episode)
• Californication (2011)
• Damages (2011)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2012, 2016, 2 episodes)
• Elementary (2015, 1 episode)
• The Blacklist (2015, 2 episodes)
• The Night Of (2016, 2 episodes)

Director

• Call of the Wylie (1995)
• Phinehas (1996)
• Early Edition (1998-1999, 2 episodes)
• Just a Kiss (2002), nominated for the Open Palm Award for outstanding directorial debut
• Crazy Love (2007), co-directed with Dan Klores
• John Leguizamo - Ghetto Klown (2010-11), opened on Broadway, March 2011
• Stand Up Guys (2013)
• Before the Flood (2016)

Producer

• Sam the Man (2000)
• The Chteau (2001)
• Piero (2001)
• Swimfan (2002)
• Uptown Girls (2003)
• Yes (2004)
• Slow Burn (2005)
• A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
• Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)
• Wedding Daze (2006)
• Crazy Love (2007)
• Meet Bill (2007)
• Feast of Love (2007)
• Awake (2007)
• The Midnight Meat Train (2008)
• The Grean Teem (2009)
• Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach (2009)
• Tenderness (2009)
• The Cove (2009)
• Blank City (2011)
• Hollywood Renegade (2011) (in production)
• Bad Trip (2011) (in production)
• Mission Blue (2011)
• Beware of Mr. Baker (2012)
• Racing Extinction (2015)
• Before the Flood (2016)

Written work

• Sam the Man (2000, story)
• The Grean Teem (2009, story)
• The Highest Tide (2009, screenplay)

Narrator

• Secondhand Souls: A Novel by Christopher Moore
• A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
• The Highest Tide: A Novel by Jim Lynch