Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

Hosted by actress Ilana Levine
  • 4.8 (485)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Weekly

With her unique style of hosting, Ilana Levine gives her listeners up close and personal access to today's biggest stars from Broadway, Film and Television. Her intimate and revealing conversations with Tony Award, Academy Award, Grammy Award and Emmy Award winners gives listeners the feeling they are part of a conversation between old friends. Guests include Julianne Moore, Matthew Broderick, Isabelle Huppert, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Platt, Uma Thurman, Matt Bomer, Aasif Mandvi, Octavia Spencer, Edie Falco, Allison Janney, Beanie Feldstein, John Slattery, Judith Light, Molly Ringwald, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Chenoweth, Anthony Rapp, Jason Alexander, Tony Shalhoub, Griffin Dunne, Kaskade, Laura Linney and many more. New episodes are released on Mondays.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 517 - Jen Schriever

    Jen Schriever is a Tony Award–nominated lighting designer working across Broadway, the West End, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, and opera.  Most recently, Schriever received the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Lost Boys at the Palace Theatre, a 12-time Tony Award–nominated production that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lighting Design, shared with co–lighting designer Michael Arden.  She received two Tony nominations for her lighting design of A Strange Loop at the Lyceum Theatre and Death of a Salesman at the Hudson Theatre. She is also an Obie Award-winner for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design and received an Obie Award Special Citation as part of the creative team and ensemble of A Strange Loop.  On Broadway and in the West End, her work includes Art (Music Box Theatre), Glengarry Glen Ross (Palace Theatre), Eureka Day and Lackawanna Blues (MTC, Samuel J. Friedman Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Hudson Theatre), 1776 and Birthday Candles (American Airlines Theatre), A Strange Loop (Lyceum Theatre, The Barbican), Mother Play; Grand Horizons and What the Constitution Means to Me (Helen Hayes Theater), The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54), Eclipsed (Golden Theatre), and John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown (Lyceum Theatre and HBO).  Off-Broadway and New York credits include Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) and The Other Americans (Public Theater), Strategic Love Play (Audible, Minetta Lane Theatre), Spain (Second Stage, Tony Kiser Theatre), Shhh (Atlantic Theater Company), Power Strip (Lincoln Center Theater, Claire Tow Theater), Usual Girls (Roundabout Theatre Company), Strange Interlude (Irondale Theatre, Transport Group), Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (New Victory Theater), and Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons).  Regionally, her work includes Uncle Vanya (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Highway Patrol (Goodman Theatre), Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical (American Conservatory Theater), A Transparent Musical (Mark Taper Forum), A Strange Loop (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). She earned a Helen Hayes award for Private Jones at Signature Theatre DC.  In opera, Schriever has designed A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), Iphigenia (tour), The Pearl Fishers and Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan Opera), and La Traviata, Faust, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia, as well as The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera in London.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  2. Jul 13

    Episode 516 - Constantine Rousouli

    Constantine Rousouli is a two-time Tony nominated actor, writer and producer, best known for co-creating, writing, and starring in hit Broadway musical TITANIQUE, which earned four Tony nominations this season, including “Best Musical” and “Best Book of a Musical.” The show is a satirical reimagining of the Oscar-winning feature film Titanic from the point of view of Celine Dion. Connie stars as “Jack Dawson.” TITANIQUE has received rave reviews and critical acclaim including two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Olivier Awards, and Drama League and Drama Desk nominations. The show previously toured off-Broadway in Chicago, Canada, London, Australia, and Paris and kicked off its Broadway run this spring at the St. James Theatre with Connie returning as “Jack” alongside returning castmate & co-creator Marla Mindelle as “Celine Dion” and new cast additions Jim Parsons and Deborah Cox. The production has also extended its Broadway run through the end of September, driven by its continued popularity and positive reception from audiences.  Following the success of TITANIQUE, Connie and his longtime collaborator & partner Marla Mindelle debuted their new off-Broadway musical, BIG GAY JAMBOREE, backed by producer Margot Robbie and LuckyChap. Marla & Connie are also developing TROOP! A BEVERLY HILLSICAL with A24 for The Cherry Lane Theatre.   Connie & Marla are also currently in development with Broadway Video and UTV on an original half-hour comedy series that they are co-writing and would star in together. The idea came together after Lorne Michaels saw (& fell in love with) TITANIQUE and had Connie & Marla test for SNL. Connie first got his start on Broadway with the revival of Hairspray as “Link Larkin.” He toured with Wicked as “Prince Fiyero”, performed in the Hollywood Bowl run of Hair with Kristen Bell, directed by Adam Shankman, and made waves starring as “Sebastian” in the off-Broadway cult hit Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical Experience. Marla has graced Broadway stages in productions such as South Pacific, Cinderella, and as part of the original cast of Sister Act as “Sister Mary Robert.” Connie’s TV & film acting credits include THE OTHER TWO (Comedy Central/Max), 9-1-1 (Fox), AJ AND THE QUEEN (Netflix), THE DEUCE (HBO), the CW reboot of CHARMED as a fan-favorite heartthrob villain, and Blumhouse & Universal’s THIS IS THE NIGHT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  3. Jul 6

    Episode 515 - E. Lockhart

    E. Lockhart is the author of the  New York Times bestselling series that includes We Were Liars, Family of Liars, and We Fell Apart.  We Were Liars is also a TV series on Prime Video.  Lockhart invented a superhero for DC Comics: Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero.  Her other books include Again Again, Genuine Fraud and  The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.  She has been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the National Book Award, and an honoree for the Printz Award.  She has a Ph.D in English literature from Columbia University. Visit her online at emilylockhart.com. IG and TikTok: elockhartbooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  4. Jun 29

    Episode 514 - Rachel Chavkin

    Rachel Chavkin received the 2019 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Musical for Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown. She is a director, writer, and dramaturg, as well as the founding Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based ensemble the TEAM (theteamplays.org), an internationally renowned experimental company whose consensus-driven collaborative process was the subject of the documentary The TEAM Makes a Play (directed by Emmy winner Paulette Douglas). Additional selected: Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway featuring Denée Benton & Josh Groban); Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould’s Lempicka (Williamstown); Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (Old Globe, Lincoln Center); Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova, Off-Broadway, National Tour); Sarah Gancher’s I’ll Get You Back Again (Round House); and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, including The Lily's Revenge, Act 2 (HERE). In addition to her awards for Hadestown, Chavkin is a recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical, three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, multiple Lortel Award nominations, two Doris Duke Impact Award nominations, and the 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity along with Dave Malloy. Her first film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. Feature film  - Hadestown and Shrew's Nest (Paramount). Proud NYTW Usual Suspect and Member SDC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  5. Jun 22

    Episode 513 - Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky

    Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky Julie and Elisa have been collaborating since they were nine years old, when they met at a Saturday morning acting class in Philadelphia. A few years later, they became writer/producers for HBO’s Sex and the City, where they earned three Emmy Award nominations and three Writers Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy. Since then, they’ve gone on to write for Smash, Divorce, and Odd Mom Out, where they were co-showrunners, and were writers/Executive Producers on HBO’s And Just Like That... where Julie also directed. They’re currently writing for Amazon’s Every Year After, based on the best-selling Carley Fortune novel Every Summer After. They’re finally writing a screenplay based on their lifelong friendship and partnership, entitled Ampersand, and Elisa is working on her first novel. They both live in Brooklyn; each has one husband and two children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  6. Jun 14

    Episode 512 - Brian Platzer

    Brian Platzer is the critically acclaimed author of the novels The Optimists (Little, Brown), Bed-Stuy Is Burning and The Body Politic (both Atria/Simon & Schuster), as well as the parenting book Taking the Stress Out of Homework (Avery/Penguin Random House).  He has written frequently for The New York Times, NewYorker.com, New York Magazine, The New Republic, and many other publications. As a novelist, Brian has toured the country discussing the craft of writing as well as the issues at the heart of his work, such as education, gentrification, chronic illness, relationships, and American politics. As a humor writer, Brian has frequently written for The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.  He recently wrote the viral article “Paw Patrol Is Contemptable Trash”; in New York Magazine, and he has performed comic essays on NPR as a featured guest on Live From Here. As an educator, Brian currently teaches 8th and 12th grade English at Grace Church School in Manhattan, having previously taught literature and writing at Johns Hopkins. Brian is a CNN contributor on education, and wrote, with Abby Freireich, the weekly “Homeroom”; column in The Atlantic as well as various articles on study skills for the New York Times. Brian is also the co-founder with Abby of Teachers Who Tutor|NYC, New York City’s only tutoring company where all the tutors are classroom teachers with master’s degrees. Together, Brian and Abby are among the city’s leaders in education-consulting, tutoring, and executive function coaching. Brian suffers from chronic dizziness and has written a series of essays for the New York Times chronicling his experiences and those of fellow sufferers. Brian is a graduate of Grace Church School, Dalton, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with his sons and his brilliant wife, Alex Hardiman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  7. Jun 8

    Episdoe 511 - Nicole Travolta

    Nicole Travolta is the creator and star of the critically acclaimed solo show Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright, a high-energy blend of stand-up, confessional storytelling, and transformational character work that has toured nationally and internationally. Originally developed in Los Angeles, the show has since played sold-out engagements Off-Broadway and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, earning 4- and 5-star reviews and coverage in Vanity Fair Italia, The LA Times, BroadwayWorld, The Daily Beast, Broadway Baby, and Outloud Culture. Travolta trained at The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, where she developed her signature character-driven style. Onstage, she seamlessly shifts between raw confession and razor-sharp impressions — including Jennifer Coolidge, Carrie Bradshaw, and Drew Barrymore — creating what critics have described as a singular comedic voice. Her television credits include Anger Management, Two and a Half Men, and The Middle. She is currently developing Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright for screen adaptation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  8. Jun 1

    Episode 510 - Geraldine Hughes

    Geraldine Hughes is a Northern Irish film, television and stage actress. Geraldine Hughes might not be an easily recognizable face for most, but she has quietly accumulated a long list of film, television and theater credits, most notably as the character of Little Marie in 2006’s film Rocky Balboa. Born in West Belfast, she moved to America after receiving a scholarship to attend university, graduating from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. In 2005, she wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed play Belfast Blues, a true story from Hughes’s perspective about coming of age in Belfast in the 1980s. Performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Belfast and London, the play received the Los Angeles Ovation, Garland and Drama Critics Circle Awards, and Hughes won a Drama League Nomination for Outstanding Performance. Most recently, she appeared in the Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of Ulster American with Matthew Broderick. The production transferred to Ireland in the summer of 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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About

With her unique style of hosting, Ilana Levine gives her listeners up close and personal access to today's biggest stars from Broadway, Film and Television. Her intimate and revealing conversations with Tony Award, Academy Award, Grammy Award and Emmy Award winners gives listeners the feeling they are part of a conversation between old friends. Guests include Julianne Moore, Matthew Broderick, Isabelle Huppert, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Platt, Uma Thurman, Matt Bomer, Aasif Mandvi, Octavia Spencer, Edie Falco, Allison Janney, Beanie Feldstein, John Slattery, Judith Light, Molly Ringwald, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Chenoweth, Anthony Rapp, Jason Alexander, Tony Shalhoub, Griffin Dunne, Kaskade, Laura Linney and many more. New episodes are released on Mondays.

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