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Joe Keenan (writer)

 

 
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Joe Keenan (writer)
 
 
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Joe Keenan (born July 14, 1958) is an award-winning screenwriter
Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scenarists are scriptwriters who write the screenplays from which films and television programs are made.Most screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation....
, television producer
Television producer

The primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking....
 and novelist and openly gay
Gay

The term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree," "happy," or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
 American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

an was born in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
. His family is Irish American
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 and Roman Catholic. He has a twin brother, John, and two other siblings. Keenan attended Boston College High School
Boston College High School

Founded in 1863, Boston College High School is an all-male Society of Jesus Roman Catholic college preparatory secondary school with historical ties to Boston College....
 and Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University

Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus of Morningside Heights in the Borough of Manhattan in the New York City....
.

992, his first play, The Times, a musical
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 about two gay men in an 18 year relationship, won the Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater, awarded by The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in United States literature, music, and art....
.






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Joe Keenan (born July 14, 1958) is an award-winning screenwriter
Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scenarists are scriptwriters who write the screenplays from which films and television programs are made.Most screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation....
, television producer
Television producer

The primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking....
 and novelist and openly gay
Gay

The term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree," "happy," or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
 American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

Early life

Keenan was born in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
. His family is Irish American
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 and Roman Catholic. He has a twin brother, John, and two other siblings. Keenan attended Boston College High School
Boston College High School

Founded in 1863, Boston College High School is an all-male Society of Jesus Roman Catholic college preparatory secondary school with historical ties to Boston College....
 and Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University

Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus of Morningside Heights in the Borough of Manhattan in the New York City....
.

Early career

In 1992, his first play, The Times, a musical
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 about two gay men in an 18 year relationship, won the Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater, awarded by The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in United States literature, music, and art....
. In 1993, the lyrics for The Times won the Edward Kleban Award
Edward Kleban

Edward ?Ed? Kleban American musical theatre composer and lyricist.A graduate of New York's High School of Music & Art and Columbia University, Kleban wrote the lyrics for the Broadway theatre hit A Chorus Line....
.

"Frasier"

He joined the staff of the sitcom Frasier
Frasier

Frasier is an American situation comedy broadcast on National Broadcasting Company for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993 to May 13, 2004....
 as an executive story editor
Story editor

Story editor is a job title in television series production. A story editor is a member of the production team of scripted television series, usually dramas and comedies....
 in 1994 for the series' second year. Gradually gaining more influence on the show, he was executive producer
Executive producer

The title of executive producer , or executive in charge of production, typically describes a film producer, television producer, radio producer, record producer, or similar Stakeholder who doesn't participate in the technical operations of the production process, but who is still responsible for the success of a project....
 when the series ended in 2004. He also wrote or co-wrote several episodes of the show, including the series finale
Series finale

A series finale is the very last installment of a television series, usually a sitcom or drama. The term is typically used to refer to a planned ending, as opposed to an unplanned one when a series is suddenly cancelled by its television network....
, "Goodnight, Seattle
Goodnight, Seattle

"Goodnight Seattle" is the title of the series finale of the long-running United States situation comedy Frasier. It aired on May 13, 2004, in the 11th year of the series....
." Keenan won five Emmy Award
Emmy Award

The Emmy Award, also known as the 'Emmy', is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards....
s during his tenure on the show. He was nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series five times, and won once. He won the Outstanding Comedy Series award four times for his work as the show's producer. He also won two Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award

The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949....
s for his work on the series.

"Desperate Housewives" and beyond

In 2006, Keenan joined Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series, created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as show runner, and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry....
 as a writer and executive producer for the third season of the television show. Although his work received good critical response, including having one of his episodes,"Bang", named the best of the season by many critics, he chose to leave the series after one year. However he is still credited as been a consulting producer and even wrote the Season 4 episode Distant Past
Distant Past

"Distant Past" is the 78th episode of the American Broadcasting Company television series, Desperate Housewives. It is the eighth episode of the show's fourth season and originally aired on November 25, 2007....
.

Keenan also created two short-lived comedy series with fellow Frasier producer/writer Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd (screenwriter)

Christopher Lloyd is an American TV screenwriter and producer of Wings , Frasier, Out of Practice, and Back to You . He has won six Emmy Awards, but is best known for his screenwriting on Frasier, where he was a co-executive producer from 1993 to 1994 and an executive producer from 1994 to 2000, and again from 2003 to 2004....
: Bram and Alice in 2002 and Out of Practice
Out of Practice

Out of Practice was a short-lived American situation comedy television series that was originally broadcast on CBS from September 19, 2005, to March 29, 2006....
 in 2005. He also co-wrote the 1994 film Sleep with Me
Sleep with Me

Sleep With Me is a 1994 in film starring Meg Tilly, Eric Stoltz and Craig Sheffer who play good friends who become involved in a love triangle, a relationship complicated by the marriage of Tilly and Stoltz....
 as well as the screenplay
Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing works....
 for the 2007 Annie Award
Annie Award

The Annie Awards are presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972....
-winning animated feature Flushed Away
Flushed Away

Flushed Away is a 2006 in film computer animation British film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. It is a partnership between Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame, and DreamWorks Animation, and is Aardman's first completely computer-animated feature as opposed to the usual stop motion....
.

Fiction

Keenan is also a published author, and is commonly referred to as a "gay P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Order of the British Empire was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read....
". As of 2007, he has written three novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
s:
  • Blue Heaven
    Blue Heaven (novel)

    Blue Heaven is the first book by novelist Joe Keenan . It is a gay-themed comedy about four friends who get caught up in ill-fated attempt to scam a Mafia family by faking a marriage and absconding with the cash and gifts that the prospective in-laws will shower on the lucky couple....
     (1988),
  • Putting on the Ritz
    Putting on the Ritz (novel)

    Putting on the Ritz is the second book by novelist Joe Keenan . It is a gay-themed comedy about three friends who become involved in the New York City magazine publishing industry....
     (1991), and
  • My Lucky Star
    My Lucky Star (novel)

    My Lucky Star is the third book by novelist Joe Keenan . It is a gay-themed comedy about three friends who get caught up with the movie business, blackmail, and handsome male The closet movie stars....
     (2006).
My Lucky Star won the Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the United States-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes....
 for humor in 2006. In October 2007, the novel also won the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor
Thurber Prize for American Humor

The Thurber Prize for American Humor, named after United States humorist James Thurber, recognizes outstanding contributions in humor writing. The prize is given out by the Thurber House....
.

Personal life

Keenan lives in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, and does not drive a car. Since 1982, he has been partnered with Gerry Bernardi.

External links

  • - GLBTQ Encyclopedia