2022 Bombeck Workshop Faculty Alan Zweibel

An original Saturday Night Live writer, Alan Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (which he co-created and produced) The Late Show With David Letterman and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

A frequent guest on all of the late night talk shows, Alan’s theatrical contributions include his collaboration with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning play 700 Sundays, Martin Short’s Broadway hit Fame Becomes Me and six off-Broadway plays including Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy, which he adapted from his bestselling book.

All told, Alan has written 11 books, including the 2006 Thurber Prize-winning novel The Other Shulman, the popular children’s book Our Tree Named Steve and a parody of the Haggadah titled For This We Left Egypt? that he wrote with Dave Barry and Adam Mansbach.

Alan’s humor has also appeared in such diverse publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times' 0p-ed page, The Huffington Post, Air Mail and MAD Magazine. He has also penned a bestselling e-book, From My Bottom Drawer.

The co-writer of the screenplays for the films Dragnet, North and The Story of Us, Alan has received an honorary Ph.D. from the State University of New York and, because of the diversity of his body or work, in 2010 the Writers Guild of America, East gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to the talk shows, Alan also has appeared in episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Law & Order and can be seen in the documentary The Last Laugh about humor and the Holocaust; Judd Apatow’s Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling on HBO, Gilbert about the life of Gilbert Gottfried; and the Emmy-nominated CNN documentary he executive produced, Love, Gilda.

Alan is currently preparing Bunny Bunny for a return to the New York stage. His cultural memoir, Laugh Lines – My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier, was recently published by Abrams Books, and a movie he co-wrote with Billy Crystal, Here Today that stars Crystal and Tiffany Haddish, can be seen on Amazon Prime and Apple TV among other platforms.

But the production that Alan is most proud of is the one he co-created with his wife Robin, their three children and five grandchildren.