Benj Pasek Author

Steven Levenson's plays include The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin (Roundabout Theatre Company, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award), Core Values (Ars Nova, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Play), The Language of Trees (Roundabout), Seven Minutes in Heaven (Colt Coeur; Emerging America Festival/Huntington Theater Company). A graduate of Brown University and former Artist in Residence at Ars Nova, he has received new play commissions from Roundabout, Lincoln Center, MCC, and Ars Nova. He is currently a writer and producer on Showtime's Masters of Sex, and he is a founding member of Colt Coeur and an alumnus of MCC's Playwrights Coalition and Ars Nova's Play Group.


Benj Pasek & Justin Paul wrote the music and lyrics for Dear Evan Hansen. In 2017, they won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for their lyrics in "City of Stars" from La La Land. Their musical Dogfight had its world premiere at Second Stage Theatre, where it won the Lortel Award for Best New Musical. Other theater credits include A Christmas Story, The Musical on Broadway, which received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Outstanding New Broadway Musical; James and the Giant Peach; and Edges. TV credits include Smash, Sesame Street, and Johnny and the Sprites. Upcoming film projects include The Greatest Showman,Trolls, Medusa, and Tom and Jerry Return to Oz. Honors include the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre (American Academy of Arts and Letters), the ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, and the Jonathan Larson Award. Both are BFA Musical Theatre graduates of the University of Michigan and members of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.