Award winning actress Illeana Douglas is a hit with critics and moviegoers alike. Current films include She’s Funny That Way (2015) directed by Peter Bogdanovitch, Pearly Gates (2015) All Stars (2014) Sisters (2014) with Barbara Hershey, and Max Rose (2013) with Jerry Lewis. It’s Dark Here (2013), Chez Upshaw with Kevin Pollak (2012), for which Douglas won the LA IFS Best Actress Award, The Green (2012) for which Douglas won best supporting actress for her role at the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Illeana Douglas first came to prominence as Matt Dillon’s suspicious sister in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For (1995), for which she was a New York Film Critics award nominee. She has had memorable performances in Goodfellas (1991) Cape Fear (1993) Alive (1993), Search and Destroy (1995) Grief (1995) Grace of My Heart (1996) Picture Perfect (1997) Message in a Bottle (1999) Happy, Texas (1999) Stir of Echoes (1999) The Next Best Thing (2000) Ghost World (2001) Dummy (2003) Factory Girl (2006) Pittsburgh (2006) Some television movies include Rough Riders (1998) Bella Mafia (1999) Lansky (2000) Point of Origin (2001) and Weapons of Mass Distraction (1998)
Illeana plays Nancy alongside Greg Poehler, Patrick Duffy and Lena Olin on NBC’s Welcome to Sweden. (2014-2015) A Swedish/American comedy shot in Sweden and produced by Amy Poehler, and has a recurring role on Chasing Life for the Disney Channel. She recently costarred with George Lopez in his untitled pilot Lopez for TV Land. She had a recurring role on Entourage, and Six Feet Under, which earned her an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Angela. She also starred as Wendy Ward in the critically acclaimed series Action (1999-2000) Additionally, she’s been featured in recurring and guest-star roles on Maron, Grey’s Anatomy, Drop Dead Diva, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, Ugly Betty, The Drew Carey Show, Frazier, Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Shark, and many more.
Illeana’s pioneering branded web series for IKEA was Easy To Assemble. has been downloaded over 40 million times and has been called, “The most successful branded show of all time” by Ad-Week. Easy to Assemble features a cornucopia of stars including Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Pollak, Jane Lynch, Cheri Oteri, Patricia Heaton, Tim Meadows, Kate Micucci, Tom Arnold, Ed Begley,Fred Willard, Roger Bart, Justine Bateman and spawned a spin-off Sparhusen which starred Keanu Reeves. Easy To Assemble has won six Webby Awards (2010-2013) for Best Performance, Best Writing, and Best Branded Series. Sparhusen won a Webby Award for Best Short Comedy. Easy to Assemble won two Streamy Awards for Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series and Best Product Integration, The 2010 BANFF Outstanding Online Performance Award, the 2010 NAPTE Digital Luminary Award and the Innovator Award at the 2010 Independent Television Festival.
Illeana is a producer and costars in the web-series The Skinny (2015) for Jill Sollaway’s online network Wifey.TV,
Illeana began her career as a stand up comedian and sketch performer at Stand Up New York and The Manhattan Punchline. While working for a New York film publicist, Douglas was asked to dub screams and provide additional dialogue for Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). This led to a long association with Scorsese, acting in New York Stories (1989), Goodfellas (1990) and Cape Fear (1991) and developing and co-producing for Cappa Productions Search and Destroy (1995) and Grace of My Heart (1996) While working for Martin Scorsese’s company Cappa she developed Bedlam, and The Lost Army. With his encouragement she also began writing and directing. Her first effort, The Perfect Woman (1993), won Best Short at Aspen Shorts Fest, was featured as the closing night selection at The New York Film Festival, and was a nominee for a Cable Ace Award. It was later sold to Miramax. Everybody Just Stay Calm (1994), was a documentary made for the newly formed Independent Film Channel representing the first programming on the network. Everybody Just Stay Calm was about the comedic trials of independent filmmaking and featured interviews with Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, David O.Russel, Kevin Smith, and many others. Boy Crazy, Girl Crazier (1996) and the television pilot Confessions of a Movie Lover was also made for Bravo and IFC. She wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short films Devil Talk, Supermarket, and Illeanarama, which have played, in numerous festivals and on the Sundance Channel. Supermarket was nominated for a regional Emmy and later developed into Illeanarama(2004-2005) for the Oxygen Network. She was executive producer on the film Life Without Dick (2002) starring Sarah Jessica Parker. She also developed and produced and hosted Celebrity Garage Sale (2009) with Tom Arnold for A&E. She wrote and produced and starred in the branded short Soul mates (2011) for Lifetime Online. She Co-produced in the documentary Kingdom Come (2013) and is a producer on the film Chez Upshaw (2012 She developed and hosted a pilot for Turner Classic Movies called Second Looks (2014) based on their Friday Night Spotlight series on TCM. She is an on camera host, writer and interviewer for Turner Classic Movies having interviewed luminaries such as Jerry Lewis, Richard Dreyfuss, Agnes Varda, Gena Rowlands, Eva Marie Saint. Her first book which is a love letter to the movies is called I Blame Dennis Hopper: Stories of a life inside and outside the movies. Published by Flatiron books it is available for pre order on Amazon and out Nov 3rd.
Illeana created and stars in The Living Room Show, an ongoing live variety show featuring comedy, music, and magic, in a complete stranger’s living room.
