User:Teblick/Manya Starr

Manya Garbat Starr (1921 (age 79) - July 26, 2000) was an American writer who worked on radio and television programs. She also collaborated with her husband on films.

Early years
Starr was born Manya Garbat, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Abraham L. Garbat. She graduated from the Dalton School in New York City and, in 1941, from Bryn Mawr College. After that, she wrote ad libs for the Dorothy and Dick radio program. She was an intelligence officer as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the WAVES for two years during World War II, after which she resumed writing for radio.

Career
When Starr's wartime service ended, she resumed writing for radio, including being the head writer for the soap opera Claudia. Other radio programs for which she wrote included Doctor's Wife, The Egg and I, First Love, and Paradise Bay.

Starr created, and wrote for, the television soap opera The Clear Horizon. Other TV programs for which she wrote included The Doctors, Home, and Experiment in Television.

She wrote the off-Broadway play Whisper to Me.

Collaboration with Nowak
After her 1981 marriage to documentary filmmaker Amram Nowak, the couple collaborated on films for 20 years. Their projects included Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987. Other project of theirs were broadcast on PBS programs. They included:"Neil Simon -- Not Just for Laughs" on American Masters and "The Cafeteria" (adapted from a Singer short story) on American Playhouse. The executive producer of Ameri8can Masters, Susan Lacy, said, "They're very open, they're wonderful people to work with — very intelligent, very talented, very tenacious."

Personal life
She and Roger Starr were married on December 2, 1945, in New York City. They had two sons.

Starr married Nowak on May 22, 1981. She died on July 26, 2000, from complications after surgery at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York, aged 79.