Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress

Elaine May (born April 21, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her initial, and possibly greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, performing as Nichols and May. She is a two-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, for The Heartbreak Kid and Primary Colors. She also received an Oscar nomination for co-writing Heaven Can Wait. In 1996, she reunited with Nichols to write the screenplay for The Birdcage, directed by Nichols. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2012 for her unique contributions. After studying acting with former theatre coach, Maria Ouspenskaya in Los Angeles, she moved to Chicago in 1955 and became a founding member of The Compass Players, an improvisational theater group. May began working alongside Nichols, who was also in the group, and together they began writing and performing their own comedy sketches which were enormously popular. In 1957 they both quit the group to form their own stage act, Nichols and May, in New York. Jack Rollins, who produced most of Woody Allen's films, said their act was "so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were."

Gallery of actress Elaine May