From his screen
debut as an actor when he was six years old to his current work as a director,
Kristoffer Tabori has lived a life steeped in the world of television, film and
theatre. As a director he has won an Emmy and has been nominated
for a DGA award. He is the
recipient of The Theatre World Award, The LA Drama Critics Circle
Award, the LA Weekly Award, and ten Drama-logue Awards.
The son of the
celebrated film and theatre actress, Viveca Lindfors and director Don Siegel
and stepson of prominent playwright George Tabori, Kristoffer embraced his
calling early on. By the age of 15, Kristoffer had appeared in seven
leading roles, including starring in his Broadway debut, The Penny Wars,
for which he was nominated by the New York Drama Critics as one of the most
promising new actors on Broadway. That same year he was awarded a Theatre
World Award for his performance off-Broadway in How Much, How Much
and was signed by 20th Century Fox for a three picture deal.
Despite the fact
Kristoffer now had a thriving career on both coasts, he hungered to study the
classics. After playing a critically acclaimed Romeo, the young
actor realized, “I had the passion but not the technique or skill to be the
kind of actor I respected and dreamt of being.” This drive led him to an
intense study of Shakespeare, both as an actor and director. His tenacity
paid off. His Hamlet at the Arena Stage in Washington D.C. was a
tour de force. Richard Coe of the Washington Post wrote, “Tabori’s Hamlet
is one of the finest I’ve seen, and I’ve seen scores of them.”
As his career as an
actor progressed – Kristoffer starred in the NBC series, Chicago Story –
his directing career emerged. His first major stage production, Romeo
and Juliet for the Grove Shakespeare Festival, won him a Drama-logue
award. Los Angeles Times theatre critic Dan Sullivan enthused,
“Tabori knows how to tell a story.” A Drama-logue for his
direction of The Two Gentlemen of Verona followed. He then
directed Julie Harris in William Luce’s Currer Bell, Esq and, at the
Matrix Theater in Hollywood, Inadmissible Evidence, starring Ian
McShane, for which Kristoffer won both and L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award
and a Drama-logue award.
Kristoffer returned
to acting, playing the lead in Simon Gray’s The Common Pursuit, in its
New York run. Critic Howard Kissel of the Daily News wrote, “Kristoffer
Tabori has an almost heartbreaking dignity…his is a deeply affecting
performance.”
Fulfilling a lifelong
dream to work in England, Kristoffer accepted the leading role in the popular
Thames TV series London Embassy, which was adapted by Paul Theroux from
his book.
Upon his return to
the States, he was offered the opportunity to direct the film The Perfect
Date, an ABC After School Special. Once again he garnered rave
reviews. Variety wrote, “The Perfect
Date, under Kristoffer Tabori’s direction… is so clever and the cast is so
adept, it’s too bad that it is relegated to afternoon TV.” He won an Emmy
for his direction.
With characteristic passion and the same high
standards he had set for himself as an actor and theatre director, Kristoffer
was determined to learn the craft and logistics of directing film. He
immersed himself in television and in the past ten years has helmed over 53
episodes, including Providence, That’s Life, Judging Amy, Chicago
Hope, Picket Fences, and Law and Order. He was also a
producer/director on the series Push and was nominated for a Directors
Guild Award for direction of Educating Mom for ABC. He
made his film directing debut with the vampire thriller Dead Of Night.
He directed the film Pursued starring Christian Slater, as well as
the heralded A Noise Within production of Twelfth Night by William
Shakespeare in Los Angeles. Recently, he directed multiple episodes of
the series Falcon Beach, Jpod, and The Guard. He
directed the films Accidental Witness and Anna’s Storm for
Lifetime, and for SyFy Fireball and High Plains Invaders.