Kevin Sussman

Kevin is in two of our Movies of the Month. One is For Your Consideration. He plays the director of the hot dog commericals Harry Shearer is in. The other one, we'll get to in a second. 

In 2008, he was a huge comedy, Burn After Reading, directed by the Jewish Coen Brothers, about an aerobics instructor who tries to blackmail a CIA agent.

In 2009, he's in Taking Wodstock, about the events leading up to the famous Woodstock concert, and you can read more about that in Eugene Levy's bio. Liev Schreiber's in it, too. Then he's in a movie about Freeloaders living in a rock star's house (for free) until he goes to sell it (Jane Seymour and Courtney Peldon are in that movie, too)!

And in 2010, he'll be in Alpha and Omega, an animation about a wolf pack, with Larry Miller.

Kevin's romantic comedies include Hitch with Adam Arkin and Michael Rapaport, Little Black Book, and Sweet Home Alabama. Another was Made of Honor, about a man asked to be a, um, maid of honor (late great Jewish director Syndey Pollack acts in that). On TV, he was in two rom-com shows. He's a regular on The Big Bang Theory, about two geeks and their hottie next-door-neighbor. And he was the boyfriend on the first season of Ugly Betty.

He also was in the social-commentary revenge-thriller Changing Lanes… the rock-n-roll coming-of-age road movie Almost Famous with Kate Hudson… and one of Steven Spielberg’s more recent sci-fi movies, AI.

Kevin has been in some very Jewish movies, too. Wet Hot American Summer, with Paul Rudd, takes place in a Jewish summer camp. Kissing Jessica Stein has Scott Cohen and Jewish acting legend Tovah Feldshuh. And Liberty Heights is a Barry Levinson film about growing Jewish in 1950’s Baltimore, the same time and place Hairspray (the other one of our Movies of the Month he's in. See, we didn't forget!) is set; Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, David Krumholtz, and Bebe Neuwirth are all in that one.

Before Ugly Betty, Kevin was in a some TV cop-and-crime hits: The Sporanos, Third Watch,  and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He also was in ER.

And before he went into acting, Kevin worked in a comic book store. We can guess how many comic books he read as a kid, being the youngest of four brothers!

Bonus:

Tovah Feldshuh, who’s first name is Hebrew for “good,” is more than that. She’s a Broadway star who also has had a career in TV and movies for 30 years. She often plays Jewish characters, and has played Golda Meir twice. In fact, she was the first to play her in Golda’s Balcony, a one-woman Broadway show. It was her fourth Tony nomination, and the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history!

Tovah also was in the Broadway version of the movie Yentl, a mini-series on the Holocaust, a movie called Saying Kaddish, and a kid’s video called “The Real Schlemiel”! One of her movies, A Day in October, is a true story about the rescue of Jews to Denmark, where they were safe from the Nazis.

Another historical event, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, is retold in another of Tovah’s movies. This terrible tragedy led to the establishment of many workplace-safety rules and encouraged workers to oragnize for their rights. And she was in Brewster’s Millions, a comedy about a guy who has to spend $30 million in 30 days to win $300 million! We wish we had such problems!

Of course, Tovah is in regular stuff too, like was a regular on the original version of Law & Order, LA Law, Crossing Jordan, and even the helicopter action show Airwolf! She also has been in soap operas like Ryan’s Hope, All My Children, and As the World Turns.

She could have used her English name, Terri, but chose to be Tovah. For her tzedakah work, she has earned Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath and the Israel Peace Medal. She has also won two awards from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, including their Image Award, for making the Jewish people look good!

Bonus Bonus:

Kevin’s Jewish Ugly Betty co-star, Judith, also is a judge on Law & Order: Special Vicitims Unit.

But to those of us who remember the 1980s, she will always be the mom on the hit show Who’s the Boss?