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Peggy Holmes
Biography
Peggy Holmes is an American choreographer, dancer, screenwriter, and film director. Her full-length directorial debut was on 2008's The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, although she had previously directed a segment of the anthology film Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. She later directed Secret of the Wings (2012) and The Pirate Fairy (2014) from the Tinker Bell film series. She uses her choreography skills to bringing life to characters; animated in otherwise. Her choreography credits includes: The Country Bears, The Old Broads, I Love Trouble, Hocus Pocus, Newsies, and The Fabulous Baker Boys. Peggy's choreography was also used though television shows, specifically; for the Pilot Episode of Fame L.A. She appeared in the TV show Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash. On January 14, 2020, Peggy Holmes was hired to direct the animated film Luck.
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Nasr Hamid Abû Zayd
Biography
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (نصر حامد أبو زيد,) born July 10, 1943 and died July 5, 2010, was an Egyptian Muslim thinker, author, academic and one of the leading liberal theologians of Islam. He is famous for his project of humanist Quranic hermeneutics. Zayd argued that the Quran should be read in the context of the language and culture of the seventh-century Arabs, and could be interpreted in several ways. He also criticized the use of religion to exercise political power. Abu Zayd is considered one of the “big names” of the post-1967 Arab intellectual tradition.
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was born in Tanta, Egypt on July 10, 1943. Abu Zayd followed a traditional religious school system and was a Qāriʾ capable of reciting the Quran. one with the proper rules of recitation, and a Hafiz who memorized the Quran completely from a young age. At the age of 12, Abu Zayd was imprisoned for allegedly sympathizing with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was also influenced by the writings of Muslim Brotherhood revolutionary Islamist Sayyid Qutb, who was executed by the Egyptian state in 1966, but distanced himself from the ideas of the Brotherhood and Qutb as he aged. He began studying at Cairo University, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in Arabic studies (1972), then his master's (1977) and doctorate (1981) in Islamic studies, with work on the interpretation of the Koran.
In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor there in 1987. From 1985 to 1989, he worked as a visiting lecturer at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies in Japan. In 1992, the process of considering his promotion to full professor at Cairo University was a "legal nightmare for him and his wife." Although he was eventually promoted, he was sued by conservative Muslims and an appeals court declared him an apostate and divorced him from his wife. This was followed by calls for his death and exile to Europe where he was given the position of visiting professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Leiden University.
In Europe, he held the Ibn Rushd Chair of Humanism and Islam at the University of Humanism in Utrecht, Netherlands, while also supervising master's and doctoral students at Leiden University . He also participated in a research project on Jewish and Islamic hermeneutics as cultural criticism within the working group on Islam and modernity of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Studies (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). In 2005 he received the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought in Berlin. His wife returned to Egypt several times to discuss master's and doctoral theses at the French department of Cairo University. Dr. Abu Zayd also returned to Egypt several times after 1995, but mainly to visit family.
During a visit to Indonesia, he was infected with an unknown virus and was hospitalized in Cairo. He died in a hospital in Cairo on July 5, 2010, aged 66. He was buried in his hometown the same day.
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Kerrie Thomason
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Kerrie Thomason is an actor, writer and dancer from Edinburgh. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Musical Theatre from Blackpool School of Creative Arts. Kerrie has trained with Free Association, House of Burlesque UK, and has completed a clowning course run by Edinburgh Award nominee, Elf Lyons.
She was the principle and solo dancer in Tim Key's ‘Single White Slut’. After a sold out run in the Pleasance Grand, Kerrie went on a UK tour, where she made her West End debut at the Duchess Theatre. The show garnered a transfer to The Melbourne Comedy Festival where she reprised her role. Since the show Tim has collaborated with Kerrie on various projects. Kerrie has also worked with Max & Ivan, Nish Kumar and James Acaster.
In 2015, Kerrie co-founded the now highly successful comedy theatre company ‘Swipe Right Theatre’. To date they have created two five star shows. The first, a 90s pop musical entitled ‘2 Become 1’, boasted 3 sell-out Edinburgh Festival runs in consecutive years and in ever increasing capacity venues. The show then went on to sell out two London runs at The Kings Head Theatre. Their follow up show, ‘Scream Phone’ debuted in 2019 to audience and critical acclaim. This spoof horror musical was directed by Edinburgh Award Nominated Tom Parry and gained a plethora of four & five star reviews, before embarking on a larger UK tour, with a transfer to Soho Theatre to follow. On screen, Kerrie has featured in ITV’s “The Investigator”, a British Crime docu-drama which aired in April 2018, and is now currently airing on Netflix.
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Sarah Ann Leahy
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Sarah Ann Leahy was born and raised in Southeast Michigan, and holds a Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts from Eastern Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting and Directing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has spent over 15 years training in action arts for film and unarmed combat for stage, with certifications in broadsword, rapier, knife, and quarterstaff, and holds additional training in firearms and tactical movement. Sarah is also a retired professional yo-yo’er, after spending three years performing a one-person show in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. She currently lives in New York City and works professionally in both stage and screen.
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Lizz Winstead
Biography
As a co-creator and former head writer of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Co-founder of Air America Radio; Lizz Winstead has emerged as a critically acclaimed political writer and producer. As a performer, Winstead brought her political wit to "The Daily Show" as a Correspondent and later to the radio waves co-hosting "Unfiltered," Air America Radio's mid morning show with citizen of the world and Hip Hop legend Chuck D, and political big brain Rachel Maddow.
Lizz' comedic talents have been recognized in Entertainment Weekly's 100 most Creative People issue and she was nominated Best Female Club Performer by The American Comedy Awards and has appeared numerous times on television including HBO's "Women of the Night", "The US Comedy Arts Festival" in Aspen, "Comedy Central Presents.." and too many basic cable stand-up shows and VH-1 "50 Greatest This" and "100 Greatest That's" to mention....
Lizz is writing, producing and staring in "Wake Up World" an Off Broadway and web show in NYC that satirizes all of our beloved morning shows. Winstead continues touring the country doing stand-up and is a regular contributor on "The Ed Show" on MSNBC.
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Yukiko Hattori
Biography
Yukiko Hattori, born on August 24, 1967, in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, is a Japanese actress and voice actress affiliated with the Gekidan Subaru theatre company. After graduating from Yokkaichi Minami High School and earning a degree in Theatre Studies from Meiji University, she initially worked in a in a corporate role at a Fujitsu-affiliated company before pursuing acting professionally.
She joined Gekidan Subaru in 1994 and has since built a versatile career across television, theatre, animation, and dubbing. Her TV credits include roles in Seijo, Keiji 7-nin, and Obachan Hoken Chōsain. In dubbing, she voiced characters in Independence Day, Face/Off, The Majestic, and The Machinist, as well as series like ER, Friends, and Ghost Whisperer. Her anime work includes Devilman Lady, Detective Conan, GTO, and the video game Final Fantasy VII Remake.
On stage, she has performed in classics such as The House of Bernarda Alba, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, along with musicals and dramatic readings. She speaks the Kansai and Mie dialects, and enjoys singing, noh theatre, meditation, and interior design.
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Kristina Orbakayte
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Kristina Edmundovna Orbakaite - born in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR - Soviet and Russian pop singer, actress; Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2013). Member of the International Union of Variety Artists. Daughter of the singer, actress, People's Artist of the USSR Alla Pugacheva and circus artist Mykolas Edmundas Orbakas. On account of Orbakaite - several theatrical works and about three dozen works in films, television films, musicals. The singer's repertoire includes more than one hundred and fifty songs.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000).
Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.
On October 31, 2020, Connery died at the age of 90.
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Evgeniy Pomeshchikov
Biography
Evgeniy Mikhailovich Pomeshchikov is a Soviet screenwriter and teacher. Laureate of the Stalin Prize, first degree (1948). Born in Yuzovka, Ekaterinoslavskaya guberniya, Russian Empire. In 1929 he graduated from the literary department of the Institute of Public Education in Odessa, in 1936 - the screenwriting department of VGIK. In 1934-1937 he was an editor at the Odessa and Kiev film studios. From the beginning of the war until 1943, he was a staff screenwriter at the Soyuzdetfilm studio. In 1943-1945 he was deputy head of the main department for the production of feature films in the Committee for Cinematography. In 1948-1952 he taught at the screenwriting department of VGIK. In 1960-1965 he was a member of the admissions committee and taught dramaturgy at the Higher Courses for Screenwriters and Directors. He wrote his screenplays on contemporary themes, most often comedies. He is buried at Khovanskoye Cemetery.
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Aleks Paunovic
Biography
Aleks Paunovic (born June 29, 1969) is a Canadian actor. Some of his many roles include prospector Jim McAllister on the drama TV series Arctic Air, Julius on the fantasy horror drama series Van Helsing, imposing warrior Wygar Oak on the second season of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and Bojan "Boki" Boscovic on the dystopian thriller series Snowpiercer.
Paunovic is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and "three generations of fighters" are in his family. His father is of Serbian descent, and his mother is of Croatian ancestry. His grandfather, father, and uncle were all champion boxers in Yugoslavia, and he was a champion boxer until a shoulder injury ended his career. Paunovic was in a rock band before he got an acting job at his first audition. He supports the Red Cross/Impact Anti-Bullying Campaign, as he had been bullied as a child.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Aleks Paunovic, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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