Away We Go

About the Cast

JOHN KRASINSKI (Burt)
JOHN KRASINSKI (Burt) has twice shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with his colleagues from the hit NBC show The Office. The program has also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, among other honors.

The Newton, Massachusetts native graduated from Brown University as an honors playwright and later studied at the National Theater Institute in Waterford, CT.

He adapted David Foster Wallace’s book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men into the independent feature film of the same name, which Mr. Krasinski also directed. The movie stars Julianne Nicholson opposite, among other men, Bobby Cannavale, Josh Charles, Dominic Cooper, Timothy Hutton, Christopher Meloni, Chris Messina of Away We Go, Max Minghella, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Ben Shenkman.

He previously worked with Away We Go director Sam Mendes on Jarhead. Among Mr. Krasinski’s other feature films as actor are George Clooney’s Leatherheads; Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls and Kinsey; Ken Kwapis’ License to Wed; Gregg Araki’s Smiley Face; Nancy Meyers’ The Holiday; Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration (which starred Catherine O’Hara of Away We Go); and, in voiceover as Lancelot, Chris Miller and Raman Hui’s Shrek the Third (which also featured Maya Rudolph of Away We Go).

Mr. Krasinski will next be seen starring onscreen with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin in Nancy Meyers’ untitled romantic comedy.

MAYA RUDOLPH (Verona)
MAYA RUDOLPH (Verona) began her performing career with the famed improvisational troupe The Groundlings.

In 2000, she made her debut on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where she continued as one of the show’s regular players for over seven years. Ms. Rudolph’s turns included memorably skewed portrayals of Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace, and Michelle Obama; and such recurring sketches as “Wake Up Wakefield” and “Time-Travelin’ Scott Joplin” (in which she played, and played piano, as Mr. Joplin).

Her previous films include Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion;Mike Judge’s Idiocracy; Bruce Paltrow’s Duets; Peter Segal’s 50 First Dates; Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck; Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca; James L. Brooks’ As Good As It Gets; and, in voiceover as Rapunzel, Chris Miller and Raman Hui’s Shrek the Third (which also featured John Krasinski of Away We Go)

The child of music producer Dick Rudolph and singer Minnie Riperton, Ms. Rudolph has followed in their footsteps by producing music, singing, and playing instruments in bands.

She recently was seen in a recurring role on the NBC comedy series Kath & Kim.

About the Director

SAM MENDES (Director)
SAM MENDES (Director) won the Best Director Academy Award for American Beauty, which also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Original Screenplay (Alan Ball), and Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall) and was nominated for 3 more. Mr. Mendes also won the Directors Guild of America and Golden Globe Awards, among other honors, for his work on the film.

His other films as director are Road to Perdition, which also earned Mr. Hall an Academy Award, and which was nominated for 5 more Oscars; Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx; and Revolutionary Road, for which Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress [Drama] and for which Mr. Mendes was again a Golden Globe Award nominee. The latter was also nominated for 3 Academy Awards.

As producer, Mr. Mendes’ credits include Susanne Bier’s Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro; and Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel.

Noted for his work in the theatre, Mr. Mendes founded the Donmar Warehouse in London, running it from 1992-2002. During this decade, the Donmar’s productions included Assassins, Translations, Cabaret, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Glass Menagerie, Company, Habeas Corpus, The Front Page, The Blue Room, To the Green Fields Beyond, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. The latter staging transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2004. He has also produced – in tandem with his associate Caro Newling – over 60 plays, many of which have transferred to New York, including Electra, True West, Juno and the Paycock, and the Tony Award-winning revival of The Real Thing. Also on Broadway, through his Neal Street Productions, he most recently produced Shrek the Musical, and last directed Gypsy with Bernadette Peters; most recently, Mr. Mendes directed The Cherry Orchard and The Winter’s Tale, in repertory at both BAM and London’s Old Vic, as the inaugural shows of the Bridge Project. The latter is a three-year partnership between Neal Street, BAM, and the Old Vic that will stage pairs of classic plays in, and with actors from, both the U.S. and the U.K.

His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes stagings of Troilus and Cressida, The Alchemist, The Tempest, and Richard III.  For The National Theatre, he has directed The Sea, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Birthday Party, and Othello.In London’s West End, he has staged The Cherry Orchard, The Plough and the Stars, Kean, London Assurance, and Oliver! He has also directed the Broadway transfers of the Donmar’s productions of Cabaret, which received four Tony Awards including Best Revival of Musical, and David Hare’s The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman and Iain Glen.

In 2002, Mr. Mendes won the London Evening Standard Award for Best Director.  He is a three-time winner and five-time nominee for the Olivier Award for Best Direction, as well as a three-time winner of the London Critics Awards.