Lynn Ahrens Biography

Lynn Ahrens' writing spans the Broadway stage, feature film and network television. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and received two Grammy nominations as lyricist of the
Broadway musical Ragtime; in the same year, she received two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and a Gold Record for Twentieth Century Fox's animated feature film Anastasia. She wrote book and lyrics for Seussical (Grammy nomination, one of the most performed shows in America); Once On This Island (London Olivier Award, Best Musical, Tony nominations for Best Book and Score); Lincoln Center Theater's The Glorious Ones (five Drama Desk nominations); Dessa Rose (Audelco Award, Best Musical, Outer Critics Circle nomination); A Christmas Carol (ten years at Madison Square Garden) and Lucky Stiff (Helen Hayes Award, Best Musical). She provided lyrics for My Favorite Year, A Man Of No Importance (Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Musical) and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, as well as lyrics for the feature film Camp. For television, she wrote the musical teleplay of A Christmas Carol (Hallmark Entertainment Special, NBC) and is a mainstay songwriter/ singer for the famed series Schoolhouse Rock (ABC-TV) and others. She has received the Emmy Award and four Emmy nominations. Her short stories
and essays have appeared nationally and have been nominated for the Best American Essays and Pushcart anthologies. She serves on the Dramatists Guild Council of America, co-chairs the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program, and is a member of AMPAS. 2008 marks her twenty-fifth year of collaboration with composer Stephen Flaherty.