Cusi Cram facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cusi Cram
|
|
|---|---|
Cram at the June 2015 Lilly Awards
|
|
| Born | September 22, 1967 Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, actress, model, director, educator |
| Education | Brown University (BA) Juilliard School (GrDip) |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse | Peter Hirsch |
| Parents | Lady Jeanne Campbell (mother) |
| Relatives | Kate Mailer (half-sister) Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll (maternal grandfather) Janet Gladys Aitken (maternal grandmother) Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (great-grandfather) |
Cusi Cram (born September 22, 1967) is an American writer, actress, and educator. She writes plays and screenplays for TV shows. She also works to support women in the arts.
Contents
Cusi Cram's Early Life
Cusi Cram was born in Manhattan, New York, on September 22, 1967. Her mother is Lady Jeanne Campbell. Cusi's biological father was from Bolivia and worked at the United Nations. Cusi identifies as Latina and often writes about her Latin roots in her plays.
Cusi started acting very young. At age six, she played a character named Moth in a play called A Midsummer Night's Dream. This play was put on at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
When she was 13, Cusi also tried modeling. She became the youngest model to sign with Wilhelmina Models. This was a famous modeling agency. Cusi attended the Chapin School in Manhattan at the time. She once said that back then, models were usually blonde and blue-eyed. She was considered "ethnic looking" because she had different features.
Cusi Cram's Career Journey
While modeling, Cusi appeared in magazines like Interview and Seventeen. At 13, she joined the TV show One Life to Live. She played the role of Cassie Callison. This job meant she had to switch schools. She went to the Professional Children's School. This school allowed her to study and film at the same time.
As she grew older, Cusi moved from acting to writing plays. She graduated from Brown University in 1990. After college, she got a job writing for the popular animated PBS show Arthur.
Cusi Cram's work has been shown in theaters across the United States. She has also had plays produced Off-Off-Broadway in New York City. Her experience writing for Arthur inspired her 2009 play, Dusty and the Big Bad World. This play was a funny look at a real-life event. An episode of the Arthur spin-off Postcards from Buster showed a family with two moms. This led to some public discussion. Cusi Cram's play explored this event in a humorous way.
In 2009, her play A Lifetime Burning also premiered Off-Broadway. This play was based on the true story of an author named Margaret Seltzer. Margaret had written a memoir that was later found to be partly made up.
Besides Arthur, Cusi Cram has written for other children's TV shows. These include the Cbeebies series The Octonauts. She also wrote two episodes for the TV show The Big C. As of 2014, she teaches playwriting. She teaches at Fordham University as part of a special program.
Notable Plays by Cusi Cram
Cusi Cram has written many plays. Some of her well-known works include:
- Landlocked (1999)
- Normal (2003), a short play
- Corduroy (2004), a musical based on the children's book
- Dusty and the Big Bad World (2009)
- A Lifetime Burning (2009)
She has also performed two one-woman shows. These shows were called Bolivia and Euripidames.
Cusi Cram's Personal Life
Cusi Cram lives in Greenwich Village, New York. She lives with her husband, Peter Hirsch. Peter is also a writer and worked on the TV show Arthur.
