Madeleine Olnek
Olnek in 2014
Born	New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	NYU (BFA) Brown University (MFA) Columbia University (MFA)
Occupations	Film director screenwriter playwright

Madeleine Olnek is an American independent film director, producer, screenwriter, and playwright. She has written 24 plays and three feature films, includingCodependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same,The Foxy Merkins, andWild Nights with Emily. Her feature films have been described as "madcap comedies with absurdist leanings" and are all centered around LGBT characters.^[1]

Olnek was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She studied drama atNYU and graduated in 1987, she received fellowships for an MFA in creative writing fromBrown University, and the William Goldman Screenwriting Fellowship for an MFA in film fromColumbia University.^[2] She became a member of the advocacy groupACT UP in the early 90's.^[3]

During her time at NYU, Olnek directed a comedy show called "The Follies" in which cast member and NYU classmate Molly Shannon created the basis for her Catholic schoolgirl persona,Mary Katherine Gallagher. Shannon credits Olnek with being "the midwife" to her signature sketch comedy character.^[4] After graduating from NYU, Olnek was a downtown New York City playwright and director. She belonged to the Emerging Writers Group at New York'sPublic Theater and worked with theWOW Café theater in New York where she wrote and directed many plays including,Wild Nights with Emily (1999)^[5] andCodependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (1992). Olnek began to realize that technological advances in the film industry were making it "the place of immediacy", so she began to focus on filmmaking.^[6] She made her first short filmHold Up in 2006 and anotherCountertransference in 2009, both of which screened at theSundance Film Festival.^[7]Countertransference was awarded "Best Short Film Directed by a woman at Sundance" byWomen in Film Los Angeles.^[8]

In 2011, Olnek adapted one of her plays into her first feature filmCodependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, which played at Sundance,MoMA, and The Viennale, and was nominated for the2011 Gotham Independent Film Awards.^[9] Her second feature filmThe Foxy Merkins, which also included some of the actors fromCodependent, played at Sundance,The Moscow International Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. It was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Olnek received research grants fromHarvard University Press and theGuggenheim Foundation to adapt another of her plays into her third feature,Wild Nights with Emily.^[10] The film was the first ever on-screen portrayal of a queer Emily Dickinson. It starredMolly Shannon, premiered in 2018 atSXSW, and was nominated for theJohn Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award.^[11] The Rotten Tomatoes editorial staff ranked it in the top ten of "The Best Comedies of 2019."^[12]

Madeleine Olnek considers herself a "lady homosexual"^[13] and lives inNew York City.^[14] She likes to tell jokes.^[15]

• Fan Mail (1987), co-written with Nancy Swartz^[19]: 94
• Case Studies (1988), co-written with Dominique Dibbell and Nancy Swartz^[20]
• Double Awareness, Double Awareness (1991)^[20]
• Spookyworld (1992)^[20]
• Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (1992)^{[21][19]: 83}
• The I'm Not Welcome Anywhere Christmas Special^[22]
• The Jewish Nun (1992)^[22][20]
• It's Not the Shoes (1992), an adaptation ofThe Twelve Dancing Princesses by Hans Christian Andersen for the Alternate Visions Theater Troupe of Youth Enrichment Services at the LGBT Center^[20]
• Disaster Area Nurse (1993)^[20][23]
• Destiny of Mimi (1994)^[20]
• How To Write While You Sleep (1998)^[22]
• Wild Nights with Emily (1999)^[5]
• Gay! Gay! Gay! (1999)^[23]

• A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler, andDavid Mamet

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

• Madeleine Olnek atIMDb
• Official Website

• Living people
• 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century American women writers
• 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century American women writers
• 21st-century American writers
• American women dramatists and playwrights
• American women film directors
• American women screenwriters
• American lesbian artists
• American LGBTQ film directors
• American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
• American LGBTQ screenwriters
• Film directors from Connecticut
• LGBTQ people from Connecticut
• Screenwriters from Connecticut
• LGBTQ people from New York (state)
• Screenwriters from New York (state)
• Film directors from New York City

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Year of birth missing (living people)