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 Robert L. Freedman was nominated for the Writers Guild Award and two Emmy Awards as the writer and a producer of ABC’s LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS, the top-rated mini-series of the season and the winner of 5 Emmys, the Television Critics Association Award, the Broadcast Critics Association Award, a Producers Guild Award nominee, and a Golden Globe nominee for Best Television Movie or Miniseries. He was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for his teleplay for Lifetime’s WHAT MAKES A FAMILY, a 2-hour drama based on a true story, starring Brooke Shields, Cherry Jones and Whoopi Goldberg, which won a GLAAD Award as Best Television Film of 2001.
Robert was nominated for the Writers Guild Award for his teleplay for RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA, starring Brandy, Whitney Houston, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, and Jason Alexander, which was seen by an estimated 60 million viewers on “The Wonderful World of Disney” on ABC-TV. A stage adaptation of his teleplay toured the country in a production starring Eartha Kitt.
Robert L. Freedman’s writing career has been an eclectic one, ranging from drama to comedy to musicals. He won the Writers Guild Award for his HBO film A DEADLY SECRET, and his acclaimed CBS film WHAT LOVE SEES won the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Television Festival. HONOR THY MOTHER, also on CBS, won him a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Born in Los Angeles, Robert is a graduate of the U.C.L.A. Theatre Arts program. He received Masters Degrees in Dramatic Writing and Musical Theatre from N.Y.U. His New York theatre credits include his play FRANTIC at the Collective Actors Theatre, and workshops of his musical GRAND DUCHY at Playwrights Horizons and the Papermill Playhouse. Robert wrote the PBS Special BROADWAY SINGS THE MUSIC OF JULE STYNE for “Great Performances”, which starred Carol Channing, Chita Rivera and many others.
 Since he began writing and producing for television, Robert L. Freedman has worked with such stars as Jack Lemmon, Dolly Parton, Angela Lansbury, Judy Davis, Richard Thomas, Ellen Burstyn, Angela Bassett, Jean Smart, Drew Carey, Julia-Louis Dreyfuss, Sharon Gless, Peter Strauss and Patty Duke, among others, including Keith Carradine, Kelly McGillis and Harry Hamlin in the highly lauded CBS mini-series IN THE BEST OF FAMILIES (aka “Bitter Blood”).
Robert has written five one-hour episodic drama pilots: LIBERTY (Fox); THE FORT (Regency TV); NORMAN ROCKWELL’S AMERICA (CBS), BRAVO COMPANY (ABC), and BIG SKY (NBC). Also in the pipeline are his full-length scripts about such controversial topics as race relations (LIFE ON THE COLOR LINE for Showtime), Vietnam MIA’s (THE SEARCH FOR JOHN O’GRADY for NBC), the film version of Frank Loesser’s musical THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, and a remake of Frank Capra’s LADY FOR A DAY for Angela Lansbury.
His recent scripts include the highly-rated MURDER IN THE HAMPTONS for Lifetime-TV, a CBS film for Reba McEntire, a biopic about fashion icon Babe Paley for Lifetime, a feature about a teenage wiz kid for Deep River Productions, and the film adaptation of Dominick Dunne’s ANOTHER CITY, NOT MY OWN for FX. Recently, he has written KINDERGARTEN WARS, AGE OF CONSENT, FULL CIRCLE FAMILY, CLAYTON'S STORY and THE OFFICER'S WIFE for Lifetime TV.
 Robert and Steven Lutvak’s new musical comedy, “A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER,” starring Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays, premieres at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California,on September 19, 2010. Book by Robert L. Freedman, Music by Steven Lutvak, Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak. Directed by Darko Tresnjak. La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director, Christopher Ashley. For more information, go to http://www.lajollaplayhouse.org.
Robert and Faye Greenberg have written a new one-man play, “THE BEAST OF BROADWAY: The Life and Times of David Merrick,” about the legendary producer. The play premieres on March 4, 2010, at TheatreZone in Naples, Florida, in a production starring David Garrison, directed by Mark Danni and produced by Danni and Larry Goodsight. For more information, go to www.theatrezone-florida.com. To read a newspaper article about the production, go to http://www.naplesnews.com/.
For their work in the theatre, Robert and his collaborator Steven Lutvak have won the 2006 Fred Ebb Award for songwriting, , the 2006 Kleban Award for lyric writing, and the 2006 California Musical Theatre Award, the latter for for their musical CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY. Based on a book by Greg Mitchell, CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY centers on the comic chicanery and shenanigans surrounding Upton Sinclair's race for Governor of California in 1934. A staged reading of the show was held on June 4, 2006, in Beverly Hills, featuring John Rubinstein, Josh Radnor, Jean Louisa Kelly and Kaitlin Hopkins. See Campaign of the Century photos from the reading on June 4, 2006 in Beverly Hills. The New York Musical Theatre Festival presented a staged reading on September 19, 2005, starring Tony winner Michael Rupert, Sally Mayes, Evan Pappas, and KT Sullivan. See photos of the NYMF presentation. A concert version of the show was presented as the closing event of this year's Chicago Humanities Festival on November 14, 2004. See photos of the Chicago Humanities Festival presentation. Robert and Steve were invited to the Sundance Institute's Theatre Lab for a 3-week workshop, July 10-30, 2006
 Robert currently resides in the Los Angeles area. He is married to actress Jean Kauffman, who has toured in A Chorus Line, Beauty and the Beast, Cats, Hair, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and On The 20th Century. She received a Drama-Logue Award for her performance as Sara Jane Moore in the West Coast Premiere of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical, ASSASSINS. Their son, Max Freedman, 21, has written two one-act musicals: ANYONE BUT ME, which had its World Premiere at the National Young Playwrights Festival in June, 2004, and was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, 2005; and SAINT PETER, March, 2006, at Harvard-Westlake Upper School. He is currently a senior at Northwestern University, majoring in Theatre, where he wrote, produced and directed the play SHOOT, performed the title role in CYRANO DE BERGERAC, and directed Martin Sherman’s BENT. His new full-length play, RAYMOND ROSENBLATT JOINS THE CIRCUS, premieres at Northwestern in February, 2010.
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