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Get to know Mr. Julien Nitzberg

Deck: A short bio on the man behind the satire stirring up controversy in Hollywood.

By Megan Chao (with excerpts from TheBeastlyBombing.com)
Entertainment L.A.

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The mastermind behind the words, Julien Nitzberg.
Photo: The Beastly Bombing

thebeastlybombing

The latest in Nitzberg's work, The Beastly Bombing. Fight Zog!
Photo: The Beastly Bombing

At first meeting, you can kind of see it in him, the punk rocker that grew up in the Bronx. Many probably never expected 41-year-old Julien Nitzberg to hit Hollywood with an operetta though, especially one like The Beastly Bombing.

Nitzberg has had an interesting life. At 16 years of age, he was the founding member and noise guitar player of the Lower East Side hardcore punk band Artless, and was well-known for getting into fights with skinhead members of the audience.

Nitzberg went on to complete his undergraduate degree at Vassar College, with a brief stint as a taxi driver, and immediately took off to Kentucky afterward, in pursuit of film. He directed a documentary for PBS' TV series Headwaters. Nitzberg then made his way to California, where he studied at the California Institute of the Arts.

Naturally, while being in California, Nitzberg made his way into the world of Hollywood, where he became a successful TV writer. He wrote for HBO, Showtime, TNT, VH1, and NBC. It was at HBO where he wrote his first musical and where his interest in it grew.

Nitzberg has always had operetta in his blood. He is the grandson of Austrian conductor Hans Knauer, who was a student of The Merry Widow's composer Franz Lehar. Knauer was chosen to conduct Lehar's operetta Eva at its premiere in front of Kaiser Franz Josef. Nitzberg re-discovered operetta when he was in London a few years ago and saw, for the first time, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.

Inspired by his experience, Nitzberg wrote The Beastly Bombing as a modern version of Gilbert's satirical operettas. He paired up with music composer Roger Neill on this endeavor.

Nitzberg also writes for magazines and was co-editor of the alternative sex journal Tease Magazine.