Gregor Collins

Gregor Collins is an American author, speaker, producer and former actor, most known for writing '' The Accidental Caregiver'', a memoir about the three years he spent with Maria Altmann.

Career

Collins moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to pursue a career in entertainment. He worked his way into producing various reality television shows such as ''Blind Date'', '' Celebrity Mole: Yucatán'', '' Girls Gone Wild'', '' Ripley's Believe it or Not'', '' E! at the Emmy Awards'', '' Welcome to Myrtle Manor'' and '' Counting Cars''. In 2004 he began to pursue professional acting, eventually performing on stage, in television and in independent films, landing lead roles in the indie feature ''Night Before the Wedding'' and the improvised feature Goodbye Promise, which the ''Los Angeles Times'' called a "simple, richly emotional look at a failed actor's introspective last days in Hollywood."

In October 2014 Collins moved to the Murray Hill, Manhattan section of New York, living with and serving as a caregiver to Austrian painter Ruth Rogers-Altmann while he prepared a stage production of his book '' The Accidental Caregiver'', about his experience caring for Rogers-Altmann's cousin Maria Altmann.

Collins has written essays about Ruth and Maria for ''The Guardian'', ''Focus'', ''Huffington Post'' and others, and has been a regular contributor to '' CinemaEditor'' since 2013.

''The Accidental Caregiver''

In 2012 Collins released the memoir '' The Accidental Caregiver: How I Met, Loved and Lost Legendary Holocaust Refugee Maria Altmann'', detailing his chance meeting and unusual bond with Jewish émigré Maria Altmann, culminating in her death in early 2011.

In 2018 Collins was the keynote speaker for events called ''Love, Maria'' in New York, Miami, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth - all sponsored by the Women's International Zionist Organization - and in 2019 was the keynote speaker for an event called ''Te Amo, Maria'' at the ''Jewish Cultural and Community Center'' in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

''The Accidental Caregiver Part 2'' was published in 2020 by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, and follows Collins' life after Maria's death and his accidental speaking tour across Australia with WIZO. As of 2024, Collins is working on a third and final installment of the caregiver series.

Stage plays

''The Accidental Caregiver'' stageplay premiered at Playwrights Horizons' Robert Moss Theater in New York City on January 26, 2015, and was directed by British theatre director Alice Kornitzer.
The play also had a staged reading at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York on June 25, 2015, which was directed by Collins. Actors Christian Scheider and Rochelle Slovin read the parts of Gregor and Maria, respectively.

In November 2015 Collins wrote the Oscar Wilde-inspired dark comedy ''Pentonville'' for the ''Manhattan Repertory Theatre'' in New York, which was directed by Jonathan Stuart Cerullo. In June 2016 Collins created, co-wrote and co-produced the black comedy series ''Stories'' for Ali Farahnakian and the People's Improv Theater in New York.

In January 2017 Collins' play ''The Secret World Inside Me'' was developed and performed as a staged reading at the ''IATI Theater'' in New York.

Personal Life

Collins resides in Arlington, Virginia and has a Vizsla named Lucy.

Filmography

References

External links

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Official website

Book Teaser

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Gregor
1976 births
Living people
Male actors from Washington, D.C.
Writers from Washington, D.C.
American male dramatists and playwrights
21st-century male writers
Ohio Wesleyan University alumni
Florida State University alumni
American memoirists
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American television producers
American public speakers
American writers
21st-century American memoirists
Memoirists from California