PJ Torokvei (born Peter Torokvei; March 19, 1951 – July 3, 2013) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

screenwriter,

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

. A

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...

, her professional credits are generally under her

deadname Deadnaming is the act of referring to a transgender or non-binary person by a name they used prior to transitioning, such as their birth name. Deadnaming may be unintentional, or a deliberate attempt to deny, mock or invalidate a person's gend ...

. In 2001, she announced to friends and family her intention to transition from her

sex assigned at birth Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of bi ...

and undergo

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and a ...

. Torokvei was involved with both ''

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

'' and '' SCTV''. Her notable works in film include the screenplays for ''

Real Genius ''Real Genius'' is a 1985 American comic science fiction film directed by Martha Coolidge and written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft, and PJ Torokvei. Starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret, the film, set on the campus of Pacific Tech, a science ...

'', '' Armed and Dangerous'', ''

Back to School ''Back to School'' is a 1986 American comedy film starring Rodney Dangerfield, Keith Gordon, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Terry Farrell, William Zabka, Ned Beatty, Sam Kinison, Paxton Whitehead and Robert Downey Jr. It was directed by Alan Met ...

'' and ''

Guarding Tess ''Guarding Tess'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film starring Shirley MacLaine and Nicolas Cage, directed by Hugh Wilson. MacLaine plays a fictional former First Lady protected by an entourage of Secret Service agents led by one she continua ...

''. Her most notable work for television was as a producer and head writer on ''

WKRP in Cincinnati ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working ...

''. She appeared in and wrote for various television shows and films from the 1970s through the 1990s. She died at home from liver failure on July 3, 2013, at the age of 62.

Filmography

Actor

*'' The New Avengers'' (1977) *'' SCTV'' (1981) *'' I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood'' (1989) *''

Hostage for a Day ''Hostage for a Day'' is a 1994 Canadian television comedy film directed by John Candy, in his only directorial effort. Though the film is also billed as "starring" Candy, he in fact plays only a minor role, as a Russian hostage taker. Produced wi ...

'' (1994) *'' Falling for You'' (1995) *'' Stuart Saves His Family'' (1995)

Producer

*''

'' (Producer - 2 episodes) (1981-1982)

Writer

*'' SCTV'' (1981) *''

'' (1979-1982) *''

'' (with

Neal Israel Neal Israel (born July 27, 1945) is an American actor, screenwriter, film and television producer, and director best known for his comedic work in the 1980s for films such as '' Police Academy'', ''Real Genius'', and '' Bachelor Party''. Biogr ...

and

Pat Proft Pat Proft is an American comedy writer, actor, and director. Born in Minnesota in 1947, Proft began his career at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis in the mid 1960s. He went on to perform as a one-man comedy act in the late 1960s. I ...

) (1985) *''

'' (with

Harold Ramis Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and ''Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russell ...

, Steven Kampmann and Will Porter) (1986) *'' Armed and Dangerous'' (with

) (1986) *''

Caddyshack II ''Caddyshack II'' is a 1988 American sports comedy film and a sequel to the 1980 film '' Caddyshack''. Directed by Allan Arkush and written by Harold Ramis (who co-wrote and directed the original ''Caddyshack'') and PJ Torokvei, it stars Jack ...

'' (with

) (1988) *''

The Earth Day Special ''The Earth Day Special'' is a television special revolving around Earth Day that aired on ABC on April 22, 1990. Sponsored by Time Warner, the two-hour special featured an ensemble cast addressing concerns about pollution, deforestation, and o ...

'' (1990) *''

'' (1994) *''

'' (with Kari Hildebrand and Robert David Crane) (1994) *''

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" is a song written and composed by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston for the Walt Disney film ''Cinderella'' (1950). In the song, Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods) encourages her animal friends to ...

'' (1995)

Career

In 1977 Torokvei joined the Toronto branch of Second City, where she met writer/performer Steven Kampmann and Martin Short. Torokvei, Kampmann, and Short collaborated on a short comedy film called ''The Cisco Kid'', which involved

dubbing Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...

comic dialogue and sound effects onto an older western (much like

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's ''

What's Up, Tiger Lily? ''What's Up, Tiger Lily?'' is a 1966 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut. Allen took a Japanese spy film, '' International Secret Police: Key of Keys'' (1965), and overdubbed it with completely or ...

''). The film was later broadcast on Canadian TV as an "extra" episode on '' SCTV''. In 1979, Kampmann and Torokvei went to Los Angeles after ''The Cisco Kid'' came to the attention of Hugh Wilson, who invited them to come in and pitch ''WKRP'' script ideas. Torokvei would eventually become head writer and stay until near the end of the final season. Many of the show's most memorable and imaginative episodes, including "Real Families," "Daydreams," and "Rumors" were written by Torokvei.

Awards

In both 1981 and 1982, Torokvei (as Peter Torokvei) was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards in her role as producer on ''WKRP in Cincinnati''.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

"WKRP in Cincinnati
Emmys.com; retrieved June 4, 2013. She is often cited as one of the first transgender people to be nominated for an Emmy.

References

External links

* 1951 births 2013 deaths Canadian screenwriters Canadian television writers Canadian television actresses Canadian television producers Transgender actresses Canadian transgender writers Canadian comedy writers Deaths from liver failure Canadian women television writers Canadian women television producers {{Canada-screenwriter-stub