Biographie
During a remarkably diverse writing career, Jerry Colker has created and developed comedies, dramas and musicals for stage, screen and television.
He is best known for writing the book and lyrics for the award winning Off-Broadway Musical about stand up comics "Three Guys Naked From the Waist Down. He won the Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical and co-starred in the New York production. He also wrote the book and lyrics for "Mail" which set box office records at the Pasadena Playhouse before opening on Broadway.
At Harvard University, he competed in gymnastics and performed in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals where he was spotted by a New York agent and found early success performing on Broadway featured in Bob Fosse's "Pippin," Michael Bennett's "A Chorus Line" and as "Riff" in the revival of Jerome Robbins' "West Side Story."
As a screenwriter, Colker has written for Walt Disney Pictures, including versions of "Aladdin" and "Rapunzel" (which later became "Tangled"), and live-action features for Touchstone Pictures, Tri-Star, Trans World Entertainment and other production companies developing projects for a diverse roster of stars, including Bette Midler, Steven Seagal, and Cheech and Chong, among others.
For television, Colker authored episodes of the long-running family comedy "Growing Pains," "In the House", and HBO's "Arliss". On PBS, he wrote for "The Steven Banks Show", along with the teleplay for the docudrama adaptation of the acclaimed Alzheimers-themed best-seller, "The Forgetting".
For the Nickelodeon Network, Colker has contributed writing to landmark children's programming such as "All That," "Kenan & Kel," "The Jersey," "100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd," "Bing" and The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Internationally, he wrote a full season of Haffa Diebold's animated series, "School of Magic."
He co-created, executive produced and was the sole writer for the cult classic kids' show for adults, "JohnnyTime!" on the USA Network for Viacom.
He is currently in various stages of development on three original musicals about:: 1) American foreign correspondents covering revolutionary changes. 2) A love/hate relationship between two iconic astronomers 3) A grandfather/granddaughter story where they are each other's salvation.
