ELEANOR is a born and bred Brooklyn girl. She is a proud product of the New York City public school system. She received her BA from Brooklyn College, graduating cum laude, majoring in Speech and Theatre.

Eleanor's parents were Holocaust survivors, which accounts for Eleanor's fluency in YIddish and love of Yiddishkeit. Both of her parents worked in sweat shops and their form of childcare while they were working was sending her to ballet school at age 3. She danced ballet for over 10 years, working on pointe and dancing recitals at Little Carnegie in Manhattan.

In the third grade she played Wendy in the school production of Peter Pan. At Eisemann Junior High in Brooklyn, her english teacher awakened her love of theatre by letting her play Emily, in OUR TOWN. At Brooklyn College her interest in theatre took a political turn and she became involved in street theatres and environmental theatre companies, joining the Theatre Asylum. With them, she played the Pig Woman in H.G. Wells' HORRORS OF DR. MOREAU based on the "Island of Lost Souls".

During her college days and through this time she made a living working as a waitress in various hotels in the Catskills including The Homowack, The Evans, The Gilberts, and the Carmel Hotel. It was there she met a waiter who was involved in the professional theatre, Jack Mashel. Jack got her an audition for the National Tour of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, directed by Lee Sankowich. She got the job, two parts - the little nurse, and Sandy, the party-girl. This job began her professional career in the theatre and she never waited tables again.

After that, she auditioned, got agents and acted in Off-Off-Broadway shows. One day she answered an ad for the Yiddish theatre at Town Hall for a play called REBECCA, THE RABBI'S DAUGHTER, starring Mary Soreanu, Raizl Bozyk, Shifra Lehrer and other stars of the Yiddish theatre. She got the job, which ran for 2 months in New York City. When the show was due to go out on the road for 2 more months, Ms. Soreanu fell ill. Eleanor thought she would be able to play the leading part and asked the producers to give her a chance. They did, and she played the role to sell out audiences and critical acclaim all over the United States.

Her next job was at the Alaska Repertory Theatre, playing in Michael Weller's LOOSE ENDS. By now her career was getting established in both the English and Yiddish worlds.

When she returned from Alaska, she stopped smoking and started singing. Then she began appearing in musicals and performing in concerts all over theatres in the United States and festivals around the world.

In 1989 she began directing and choreographing. Her first venture on Broadway got her a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Musical for the show, THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

In 1996 she began writing plays. Her first play, THE LAST SURVIVOR was selected for a number of play festivals and was produced by Northlight Theatre in 1997.

She received a Playwriting Fellowship to the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, where she worked on her second play, WISHFUL THINKING and has since been made a Permanent Fellow at Bogliasco. She was since invited to the American Academy in Rome as a Visiting Artist, where she wrote poetry and worked on her third play, THICKER THAN WATER. In 2000 WISHFUL THINKING won the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition.

Other Off-Broadway directing work includes COWGIRLS at the Minetta Lane Theatre, and four plays at the Mint Theater, including J.M Barrie's ECHOES OF THE WAR starring Tony nominated actors Richard Easton and Frances Sternhagen, as well as plays by Galsworthy, Cecily Hamilton, and Rose Franken.

As an actress, most recently she starred in the title role of YENTL to tremendous critical acclaim. She performed her one woman show, HIP HEYMISH AND HOT to sold out audiences at the Houseman Theatre in New York City, and all over the country. She is very proud of her new CD, SONGS IN THE KEY OF YIDDISH. Eleanor enjoys a career as an actor, singer, recording artist, director, choreographer and playwright.

She currently resides in New York City with her wonderful husband.