Fred Melamed

Fred Melamed (born 13 May 1956) is an American actor and writer. He was born and raised in New York City, in a show business family. His mother was actress Syma Melamed, and father, Lou, was right hand man to television pioneer Nat Hiken, and producer of many early shows, including The Nat King Cole Show, Let’s Pretend, Sgt. Bilko, and Car 54 Where Are You? Melamed was adopted, and as an adult became acquainted with his biological parents, Actor/Director Nancy Zala(Round Numbers), and British psychoanalyst, Stanley Silverstone, who was related to noted theatrical family, the Adlers, including Luther and Stella Adler.

Fred received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse College Graduate Fellow. He was also a nominee for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize conferred upon the most promising young actors in the United States. While still at Yale, he was an instructor at the well-known performing arts camp, Stagedoor Manor. After his training, he appeared on stage with several resident theatre companies, including The Guthrie Theater, The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, The Yale Repertory Theater, and on Broadway in the Tony Award-Winning Amadeus. At the same time, he became established as a voice actor, and began to do film work.

At about the same time, Fred began his long association with Woody Allen. He has appeared in a total of 9 Woody Allen/Marshall Brickman films. Fred’s collaborations with Allen have included the Oscar-Winning Hannah and Her Sisters, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Radio Days, Husbands & Wives, Hollywood Ending, and Shadows and Fog. His filmography also includes Peter Yates’ Suspect, with Cher, Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson, The Good Mother, with Diane Keaton and Jason Robards, Roland Joffe’s The Mission, with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, James Toback’s The Pickup Artist, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Dennis Hopper, and Marshall Brickman’s Lovesick, with Dudley Moore and Sir Alec Guinness, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Lying and Stealing, The Vigil, Shiva Baby, Rumble.

But it was for his portrayal of "sensitive" villain Sy Ableman, in Joel and Ethan Coen's 2009 film, A Serious Man, which was nominated for Best Picture, at the 2010 Academy Awards, that he became most widely known. About that character, Film Confessional said, "Sy Ableman is as great a contemporary movie villain as The Joker, Hans Landa, or Anton Chigurh. The character Fred Melamed contrives is the year's most brilliant force of destruction."
For his performance in A Serious Man, Melamed won The Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award. New York Magazine listed Melamed's work as among the Best Performances of 2009, and Empire called Sy Ableman "One of The Best Coen Bros. Characters of All Time". Several leading American critics, including A.O. Scott of The New York Times, Michael Philips of The Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times said his performance was worthy of Academy Award nomination.

Melamed starred in Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator, as Elliott Gould’s son, the independent feature, Fred, as Brian Cox’s friend, agent, and possibly, lover, in Passing Harold Blumenthal, and as an old-school bookie opposite Parker Posey in BirdBrained.

TV fans will recognize him as Larry David’s name-dropping psychiatrist, Arthur Thurgood, from Curb Your Enthusiasm, and tough-guy jurist, Alan Karpman, on The Good Wife. Other tv credits include The Morning Show, Superstore, Adventure Time, Lady Dynamite, Brooklyn-99, New Girl, The Detour, Benched, Girls, House of Lies, Blunt Talk, Wanda Vision, Casual, F is for Family.

In fall of 2011, Melamed made a return to Broadway in Relatively Speaking, a trio of one-acts by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, but his run was short, leaving the company after five weeks of rehearsal and two weeks of previews. He cited conflicts with film projects that he wanted to pursue as the reason.

As a writer, he has produced screenplays including Girl of the Perfume River, A Jones for Gash, The Asshat Project, and most recently The Preservationist, a fictional film inspired by the case of Melamed's college friend, Edward Forbes Smiley III, a renowned cartographic expert and dealer, who admitted to having been the most brazen and prolific map thief of all time. Melamed has said publicly that he intends to direct this film himself, and will not sell it under any circumstances.

He lives with his wife and twin sons on the East End of Long Island. Both of the Melamed children were born with autism, and Melamed and his wife have been involved in advocacy for persons living with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families.