Presented by

NORMAN LEAR

A television and film writer/producer whose dynamic career in Hollywood has encompassed both the Golden Age and Streaming Era. Lear was born in 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended Emerson College before flying 52 combat missions over Europe during World War II. Upon his return, Norman began a successful career writing and producing programs like The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Martha Raye Show — ultimately leading to Lear captivating 120 million viewers per week with his iconic shows of the 1970s and ‘80s — All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time (1975), and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Lear currently serves as executive producer to the critically-acclaimed reimagining of One Day At A Time.

As Lear began witnessing the rise of the radical religious right, he put his television career on hold in 1980 to found People for the American Way. Today, the organization is over one million members and activists strong and continues to fight right-wing extremism while defending constitutional values like free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

Lear is a 2017 Kennedy Center Honoree, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, the Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and a proud member of the inaugural group of inductees to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. He has won five Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe.

Ophira Eisenberg hosts NPR’s nationally syndicated comedy, trivia show Ask Me Another where she interviews and plays silly games with Sir Patrick Stewart, Awkwafina, Terry Crews, Josh Groban, Nick Kroll, George Takei, Ethan Hawke, Uzo Aduba, and more. She is a regular host and teller on The Moth Radio Hour. Her comedic memoir, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, which has been optioned for a feature film. She has appeared on Comedy Central, This Week At The Comedy Cellar, The New Yorker Festival, Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, HBO’s Girls, Gotham Live, The Late Late Show, Today, and VH-1. Her comedy special Inside Joke is available on Amazon and iTunes.

ERIC ROTH

With a career spanning over 40 years, Eric Roth has penned unforgettable scripts that have inspired cinema for decades. Roth won an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay for the critically acclaimed film Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks in an Oscar®-winning performance. He also received four additional Oscar® nominations for A Star is Born (2018), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Munich, and The Insider. Additional notable films from Roth include Ali, The Horse Whisperer, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. He is currently in post-production on Dune with Timothée Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, and Josh Brolin and is in pre-production on Killers of the Flower Moon, to be directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro. He has just completed producing Mank, starring Gary Oldman in a 1930s drama about the writing of Citizen Kane, for Netflix and David Fincher. Roth is a recipient of both the prestigious Laurel Award for Screen and the Writers Guild of America West's Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Ophira Eisenberg hosts NPR’s nationally syndicated comedy, trivia show Ask Me Another where she interviews and plays silly games with Sir Patrick Stewart, Awkwafina, Terry Crews, Josh Groban, Nick Kroll, George Takei, Ethan Hawke, Uzo Aduba, and more. She is a regular host and teller on The Moth Radio Hour. Her comedic memoir, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, which has been optioned for a feature film. She has appeared on Comedy Central, This Week At The Comedy Cellar, The New Yorker Festival, Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, HBO’s Girls, Gotham Live, The Late Late Show, Today, and VH-1. Her comedy special Inside Joke is available on Amazon and iTunes.

THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH

Thomas Middleditch is a comedian, screenwriter, and Emmy®-nominated actor for his role on Silicon Valley. He has also been in Godzilla: King of Monsters, Replicas, Joshy, The Final Girls, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, The Office, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Bronze.

BEN SCHWARTZ

Ben Schwartz is an Emmy® Award-winning writer, actor, and comedian. You know him from House of Lies, Parks and Recreation, This Is Where I Leave You, Happy Anniversary, Outside In, Night School, and most recently Sonic the Hedgehog and Space Force.

Michael Ian Black is an actor, director, author and commentator, who regularly tours the country performing his ribald brand of jokes and observations.