As I end my first day of my 37th year, here are the things and moments that have defined me:
1) My mother being kind enough to birth me. I was supposed to be the girl. Jennifer. Suffice it to say, that didn’t work out.
2) The Amblin Films. Back to the Future, Raiders, Goonies, Gremlins, and ET were my Bible.
3) my closest friends. An assortment of buddies I have been collecting since I was 4. @DukieLang @sethgabel @maswe1223 @MrWeitzner #bretthorgan and @craigjared among the ones I’ve known the longest.
4) The Muppets. Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and the entire gang taught me not necessarily life’s lessons, but the fun and liberating journey that can accompany us on our path to discovering life’s lessons. Still chasing my rainbows.
5) The Karate Kid. Not sure why, but the story of Daniel Larusso and Mr. Myagi was my Rocky. It taught me to never give up and to never give in. And despite my inability to wax cars and paint fences, I get back up even when they sweep my leg.
6) The Beach Boys - I grew up loving the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Elvis but my definitive early musical pioneer gold medalists are The Beach Boys. In my humble opinion, Pet Sounds remains up there with Sgt. Peppers as the greatest album of all time.
7) The Harry Potter books. While my favorite genre is historical non-fiction and I tend to love narratives that are real world based, this remains the greatest dive into fanciful and imaginative literature I have ever taken.
The Lord of the Rings opus. While the books themselves are masterpieces, the LOTR trilogy remains one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history by virtue of the expectations placed on them. This is a series I will continue to visit over and over again for years to come.
Game of Thrones. Similarly, no literary television adaptation has been so unexpectedly effective for me as this masterpiece. As a series it has transcended the form and made long form serialized content feel as urgent, fully realized and cinematic as any fantasy film ever made.
10) Guns and Roses. At the age of 7, I first heard Appetite for Destruction being blasted in my brother’s room. It was my official transition out of the influence of my parent’s music and into my own understanding of the kinds of music that would define me.
12) Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Long before I was ever blessed to work with these iconic geniuses they brought me to my knees and taught me that satire meant fearlessness, subversiveness and reckless abandon. 21 seasons later, they continue to teach me.
13) Robin Williams. My heart still breaks for this electric current of a man who surged through our lives ever so briefly and blessed us all with his manic brilliance. I am Olaf because he gave me Genie.
14) The great Charlie Chaplin who taught me that comedy doesn’t require dialogue...but the universal language of physicality, expression, and pathos.
15) Phillip Seymore Hoffman. Here was a man who’s greatness couldn’t be fully appreciated until the crater of his loss was felt by his enormous absence. He didn’t play characters. He allowed characters to live though him. A master in every way.
16) Another man gone way too soon. The great Chris Farley who didn’t just make me laugh but robbed me of breath and laid me flat on the ground. Perhaps the funniest man of all time.
17) The institution known as Saturday Night Live. From Chevy to Belushi, from @AdamSandler to @chrisrock from Ferrell to Wig and on through Fey, Poehler and McKinnon - no show has been as much of a constant for 37 years as this incredible late night show has.
18) Eddie freaking Murphy - Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, Trading Places, Coming to America, Boomerang. Mic dropped. Come home Eddie. Please!!
19) Bill Murray - Yet another SNL legend. Irreverence and nonchalance mixed with snark, dryness, and mania. He is the perfect comedic specimen.
20) Finally rounding out the enormous SNL influences in my life is @BillyCrystal who from “When Harry Met Sally” to “”Mr. Saturday Night” to the pitch perfect “City Slickers,” gave me a benchmark of the kind of performer I strove to be. And then honored me with his partnership
21) The Theater Gods who, like Sirens, lured me into their web. Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Berlin, Loesser, Hart, Sondheim, Stein, Kander, Ebb, Bernstein, Webber, Menken, Ashman, Schwartz, Finn...and the modern greats @pasekandpaul @Lyrikris10 #Lopez & @Lin_Manuel
22) my @cmudrama college friends and classmates who challenged and inspired me as an actor, like @RoryOMalley @leslieodomjr @joshgroban @KatyEMixon @meganhilty @JoeManganiello @ZacharyQuinto @MattBomer #brigidryan and the many many others.
23) Star Wars. U know what u need to know about my devotion, obsession and love for these films. Most likely u share them. So, let’s just leave it there. @HamillHimself @carrieffisher #HarrisonFord & #GeorgeLucas thank you for my childhood, my adulthood and my now my parenthood.
24) My devoted mom and stepdad who have given me everything I could have ever asked for and then more for good measure. I am who I am because you guided me to the best version of myself.
25) My Holocaust Survivor grandparents who taught me that life is truly a gift and every day we must fight to ensure that the values and decency of our lives are never compromised. We must fight, not for ourselves, but for those who face oppression, prejudice & hate.
26) Saturday morning cartoons and after school cartoons: Rescue Rangers, Tailspin, DuckTales, Animaniacs, Tony Toons, Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles and Muppet Babies. Glad half of these are back!!
27) Miami Sports. I may never have lived through a @MiamiDolphins Super Bowl win, but I take pride in our perfect season. The @MiamiHEAT @Marlins championships have been pretty sweet though. As were the @FlaPanthers playoff runs.
28) My three 90’s essential sitcoms: Seinfeld, Cheers and Frasier.
29) Disneyland and Disney World. Happiest place on Earth. My two homes, Florida and CA always a stone’s throw away from the magic of these dream factories that showed me the limitlessness of our imaginations & are now teaching my girls the same thing.
30) The Godfather 1 & 2. What Michelangelo’s “David” is to the art world, so too are these films to cinema.
31) The gift of travel. I have been blessed to travel the world. It is in such blessed visits that I have been able to learn about cultures but perhaps more importantly, I have been able to learn about perspectives.
32) My favorite books. “Devil in the White City,” “Lincoln and his Team of Rivals,” “Ready Player One,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “John Adams,” “In the Garden of the Beasts,” “The Sound and the Fury,” “Great Expectations,” “Invisible Man,” Edmund Morris’s TR trilogy
33) My Family. My niece, my nephews, my aunts, my uncles, my in-laws. All have been there when I tripped. And all caught me long before I could ever fall.
34) My school teachers. Mrs. Winrow, Mrs. Moris, Mr. Redler, Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Pesola, Mrs. Blattner, Mrs. Rothschild, Mrs. Lambert, Mr. Fawcitt. They were armed with something so much more powerful than weapons...knowledge and the tools to pass it on.
35) The gift of history. The knowledge to see the paths that have been recklessly forged so that we are never bound to repeat the same mistakes. I have always loved the past because it has always been my closest connection to the future.
36) My children. The greatest gifts I have ever known. They teach me everything I already know but show it to me in a way that reminds me of how little I truly know.
37) This one is mine. This one is the secret I get to keep of what makes me who I am. I’m going to hold on tight to this one...until I turn 38.
