Brian Swibel is a Chicago born producer, director, writer and actor. He is the founder of b. swibel presents, a New York and Los Angeles based entertainment company (affiliated with Playing Pretend Productions) that develops and produces diverse forms of media and arts education programming. His numerous projects have garnered him two Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 nominations and a Kodak Emerging Filmmakers Award.

Early career

Mr. Swibel founded his first theatre company in Chicago in 1999, and subsequently began taking short sub-leases on his friends' Bucktown apartments and converting them into black box theaters. Over the next three years, Swibel produced and directed productions of such works as Cowboy Mouth

Cowboy Mouth

Cowboy Mouth is a rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Their name usually means "One with a loud and raucous voice". The nucleus of the band formed in the 1990s, and they have become a powerhouse live act whose performances have been likened to "a religious experience."Some of their most...

, Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director and film director. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and educated at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and then at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario....

's House, Orpheus Descending

Orpheus Descending

Orpheus Descending is a play by Tennessee Williams. It was first presented on Broadway in 1957 where it enjoyed a brief run with only modest success. The play is basically a rewrite of an earlier play by Williams called Battle of Angels, which was written in 1940, but had been closed on its opening...

, Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....

, The Entertainer, Temporary Help, Falconer

Falconer

Falconer or The Falconer may refer to:*A person skilled in the art of falconry*Falconer , a family name*Falconer, New York, United StatesIn media:*Falconer , a power metal band from Sweden...

, and Base (Saratoga International Theater Institute play festival) an original short play conceived under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed Director Anne Bogart

Anne Bogart

-Biography:She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College in 1974, followed by a Master of Arts degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1977. She served as Artistic Director of the Trinity Repertory Company for its 1989-90 season...

.

He founded The Zia Pueblo Theater Project, a children's performance arts program based in New Mexico that brings together Native American students and theater conservatory graduates to create cross-cultural, home-grown "theater that heals".

Swibel co-wrote two critically acclaimed and award-winning short films. Sunset Town, the first film in the series, won multiple nat'l awards and was followed by Fault, which garnered the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 and international distribution.

Other work in the theater include: Off Broadway: Family Secrets Directed by Bob Balaban

Bob Balaban

Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...

.. Los Angeles: Harold Becker's Production of Athol Fugard's Blood Knot, Romeo and Juliet, Peter Pan, Curse of the Starving Class, Hamlet (Camelot Group), Good Thing in LA (Hudson Guild).

Acting career

Swibel’s acting credits include the short films Sunset Town and Fault, as well as the full-length motion pictures Undiscovered

Undiscovered

Undiscovered is a 2005 film directed by Meiert Avis. The plot is about a group of aspiring entertainers who intend to establish their careers in Los Angeles. Released on August 26, 2005, the film received a largely negative reception - as of January 8, 2008 the film had a 7% rating at Rotten...

, Crank

Crank (film)

Crank is a 2006 American comedy movie, written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, and Dwight Yoakam...

 and Permanent Vacation

Permanent Vacation (2007 film)

Permanent Vacation is a dark comedy film written, directed, and produced by W. Scott Peake and is based upon the novel, What We Did On Our Holidays by Geoff Nicholson. Permanent Vacation is Scott’s first feature film after a career in directing commercials and music videos...

. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1129338/

Recent Producing Credits

in 2007, Mr. Swibel, along with his partner Tara Smith, became the youngest lead producers on Broadway with the hit original musical satire Xanadu (musical)

Xanadu (musical)

Xanadu is a musical comedy with a book by Douglas Carter Beane, music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the 1980 cult classic film of the same name which was, in turn, inspired by the 1947 Rita Hayworth film Down to Earth. The title is a reference to the poem, Kubla Khan, or A...

 by Douglas Carter Beane

Douglas Carter Beane

Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York...

. Xanadu earned the 2008 NY Outer Critics Circle Award

Outer Critics Circle Award

The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...

 for Best Musical, the 2008 Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

 for Best Book and 4 2008 Tony

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 nominations, including Best Musical

Tony Award for Best Musical

This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...

. Coinciding with Xanadu, he produced the record-breaking hit web series Cubby Bernstein http://cubbybernstein.com/ starring Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....

, Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...

 and Patti Lupone

Patti LuPone

Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...

. Swibel’s next endeavor brought Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

 to Broadway, starring in You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush

You're Welcome America

You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush is a comedic Broadway play starring Will Ferrell as George W. Bush. It was broadcast live on the HBO cable channel, as well as in Canada, on March 14, 2009, at 9:00PM EST. Ferrell, who has famously depicted Bush on Saturday Night Live, also...

, a solo comedy show which was later broadcast on HBO.

He recently directed a reading of Really Really by Paul Downs Colaizzo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and is currently in development of a feature film based on the book 15 to Life, which chronicles Anthony Papa’s

Anthony Papa

Anthony Papa , artist and author of 15 to Life, is an advocate against the war on drugs and co-founder of the Mothers of the New York Disappeared....

experience serving time in prison under the Rockefeller drug laws.