User:Allieflynn/Peggy Rajski

Peggy M. Rajski is an American filmmaker, best known for directing and co-producing the 1994 American short film Trevor, which won an Academy Award for "Best Live Action Short Film" at the 67th Annual Academy Awards in 1995. She is also a co-founder of The Trevor Project, a crisis-intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, and an academic who has taught producing and filmmaking. From June 2018 to March 2021, Rajski was dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television in Los Angeles, California. In November 2022 she became Interim CEO of The Trevor Project.

Early life and filmmaking career
Rajski was born on April 4, 1994. and raised in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in the large family with six children to the parents of Pat A. Rajski and Patricia A. (Simon) Rajski. After graduating from Pacelli High School, Rajski received a bachelor's degree of arts in communication, radio, and TV, and film from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in the year 1973. and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She later was awarded the University of Wisconsin's distinguished Alumnus award later. Following her graduation, she moved to New York to pursue a career in the film industry. At this point in time, there was not much a indie scene in film. While in New York, she met actor Joshua Mostel, and later married him in Manhattan, New York in 1983, but then later divorced. Upon moving to New York, Rajski initially worked as a receptionist at "a New York firm that did corporate films" while working in communications in mid town. At this job in midtown, Rajski assisted with production on directing jobs, and various other tasks. Through this job, Rajski met John Sayles and Maggie Renzi who had become their production manager and producer. Rajski faced many inequalities and became an independent producer in the early days of Hollywood. She then joined a production group, quickly rising to prominence.

She was soon hired as a production manager by writer/director John Sayles for his 1983 film Lianna. She went on to produce a number of Sayles's early films, including The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), and Eight Men Out (1988), also working with other filmmakers to produce Little Man Tate (1991; directed by and starring Jodie Foster), The Grifters (1990; directed by Stephen Frears and co-produced with Martin Scorsese), and Home for the Holidays (1995; also in collaboration with Jodie Foster).

In 1994, Rajski directed the American short film Trevor and co-produced it with Randy Stone. This is where Rajski became very well known. Written by Celeste Lecesne and set in 1981, the film follows a 13-year-old boy named Trevor, a Diana Ross fan, when his crush on a schoolmate named Pinky Faraday is discovered. She got the idea for this film while listening to NPR on the radio. She learned that one third of suicides were LGBTQ+ teens. Rajski felt she had to act. She knew she could make a difference in the LGBTQ+ community with her career in producing films. Trevor first debuted on HBO in its own half-hour slot, the first of its kind. The show was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres who had recently come out as lesbian and was a pillar to the LGBTQ+ community at the time. The idea for the character came from her one man show titled Word Of Mouth, which is about a thirteen year old boy who questions his sexuality and suffers from the abuse from society. In the short film, Trevor faces harsh criticisms from his friends, parents, and other authority figures, which in turn makes him question his mental health even more. Rajski wanted the youth to be able to relate to this character, and to know that they were not alone. The short-film Trevor adapted to a musical titled Trevor- The Musical, and even books like Trevor- A novella . In 1995, Trevor tied for an Oscar for Best Short Subject with Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life at the 67th Academy Awards. It also won the Teddy Award for Best Short in 1995. In 1998, Rajski co-founded The Trevor Project, recruiting Stone and Lecesne to create a 24/7 crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.

In 2003, she also directed episodes of the TV series, ER; she was the only new director introduced in the show's ninth season. In 2012, Rajski worked with the producers of Glee to address teen suicide in the episode, "On My Way", with a public service announcement for The Trevor Project being included in the episode. The episode resulted in a record number of calls to the non-profit’s hotline, and record traffic to its website. Rajski stated that because the show "worked in conjunction" with The Trevor Project, the organization was prepared in advance to handle the increase in hotline traffic, which was "triple the [usual] number of calls." They also saw a nearly sevenfold increase to 10,000 website visitors on the evening the program aired.

Rajski worked with numerous actors and directors such as Martin Scorcese, John Sayles, and Jodie Foster, among others. Throughout her career, Rajski has been involved in numerous projects as director, mentor, and producer. Her film in which she produced The Grifters in 1990 received widespread acclaim and was nominated for many awards. Rajski has notably tried absolve diversity from the film career. She commonly hired as many Black Americans and women on her crew. in support of the LGBTQ+ community, Rajski did not stop at Trevor. In 1994, Rajski produced the film The Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. This film was about two drag queens and a transgender on a journey through the Australian Outback. Pricilla is often credited with bringing drag queens to the film industry. It brings a range of sexual lifestyles to the media and enters the gay film market.

On August 9, 2017, the Writers Theatre in Chicago premiered "Trevor the Musical", adapted from Trevor. As of 2019, it was being adapted as a Broadway musical.

Academic Career
From 2010 to 2018, Rajski was head of studies for producing at New York University Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program. During this time, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point named Rajski a College of Fine Arts and Communication Distinguished Alumnus in 2014.

Rajski was named Dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Film & Television in 2018. In April 2019, she was a speaker and panel moderator at Film Independent's 14th annual Film Independent Forum, and is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist at industry events in Los Angeles and elsewhere. After 2 years at LMU, Rajski was fired "following complaints about her abrasive behavior to faculty and staff".

Accomplishments
After the short-film Trevor, Rajski felt that she could do more with her voice and founded the Trevor Project. This goal was to provide support and a sense of community for the LGBTQ youths who had nowhere else to turn. The projects mission statement was to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning young people. Rajski made the Trevor Project to be an open source organization to help protect the mental health needs of undeserving people. She realized how little services there were for the LGBTQ community and thus made a call center for the Trevor project to be able to reach the maximum number of people. The project receives over two-hundred thousand calls annually from young LGBTQ people in a mental health crisis who are in need of help with mental health professionals.

The vision for Rajski was to help create a world where all LGBTQ  young people see a bright future for themselves. Glee to help spread awareness of lgbt teen suicide, and even included the Trevor Projects line and received hundreds of calls after the show aired. The calls went up around three-hundred percent, but the team was ready for it. Rajski has produced over a dozen feature films and has been awarded more than forty major award nominations. Rajski received the Sundance Film Festival-Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking in 1995. She also received an Oscar for the film Trevor for the Oscar-Best Short Film, Live action in 1994. Rajsk was also nominated for Independent Spirit Awards-Best Feature, but did not win. Rajski was recognized as a Live-Action Icon by the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts.