Woody Allen

WOODY ALLEN. American director, writer, actor, comedian and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He began his career as a comedy writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television and publishing several books of short humor pieces. In the early 1960s, he began performing as a stand-up comedian. As a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked him fourth on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians. By the mid-1960s, he was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into dramatic material during the 1970s. He often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup. Some of the best-known of his over 50 films are ; Annie Hall (1977) / Manhattan (1979) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). He has received many honors throughout his career. He has won four Academy Awards and nine British Academy Awards.