Ricki Lake, Jennifer Block, and Abby Epstein

Ricki Lake -- Born in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, Ricki Pamela Lake developed an early interest in performing. After studying at New York’s Professional Children’s School in her teens, and a year spent at Ithaca College in New York, she decided to pursue acting fulltime. Soon after leaving college, Lake received a call to audition for writer-director John Waters’ musical comedy Hairspray.

Lake’s performance as the film’s zaftig heroine, Tracy Turnblad, won over audiences and critics, earning her a 1988 Independent Spirit Award nomination for best actress and roles in films such as John Waters’ Cry-Baby and Cookie, the top-grossing comedy Working Girl, the acclaimed drama Last Exit to Brooklyn, Where the Day Takes You and Inside Monkey Zetterland, as well as a season on TV’s China Beach.

In 1992 Ricki appeared in a pilot for a new daytime talk show and by the following year she had moved to New York and begun taping The Ricki Lake Show for Sony Pictures Television.

Even as her talk show became a phenomenon, Lake continued to pursue acting roles, appearing in the romantic comedy Mrs. Winterbourne, John Waters’ Serial Mom and Cecil B. Demented and in a recurring role as Stephanie Heffernan on the hit sitcom King of Queens. 2002 saw her onstage at Madison Square Garden in a celebrity-studded performance of The Vagina Monologues.

Since the wrap of The Ricki Lake Show in August 2004, Lake has continued to act in various film and TV projects. This year she shared her love for games with millions as the host of the CBS hit, Gameshow Marathon and she recently completed Kurt Voelker’s independent film, Park, opposite William Baldwin and Cheri Oteri.

Jennifer Block -- Jennifer Block is a journalist and the author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care (Da Capo Press, June 2007). Her work has appeared in The Nation, the Village Voice, ELLE, Plenty, and Ms., where she was an editor. She also served as an editor of the revised Our Bodies, Ourselves. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.


Abby Epstein -- Director, Producer Abby Epstein most recently collaborated with Ricki Lake on their critically acclaimed documentary, The Business of Being Born which explores the way women give birth in America. The Business of Being Born premiered to standing ovations at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was bought by New Line Cinema and Red Envelope Entertainment. It also played at the Provincetown, Palm Springs and Zurich Film Festivals. The doc was released theatrically across the country and became one of the top 50 rentals on Netflix. Ms Epstein made her film directing debut at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival with the award-winning documentary feature Until the Violence Stops. The film, featuring playwright and activist Eve Ensler, explored how The Vagina Monologues grew into an international grassroots movement called V-Day to stop violence against women and girls. After premiering at Sundance, the film played at the Miami, Santa Barbara, Maui and Locarno Film Festivals and won the Golden Audience Award at the Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver. Until the Violence Stops had its broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television in a commercial-free presentation and received a Gracie Allen and an Emmy Award.

Ms. Epstein began her career as a theater director in Chicago where she founded Roadworks Productions and premiered works by Eric Bogosian, Patrick Marber and Mike Leigh, earning over twenty Joseph Jefferson Awards. Returning to NYC in 1998, Ms. Epstein became Resident Director of the Broadway musical Rent and directed the Rent premieres in Mexico City, Barcelona and Madrid. As associate director of The Vagina Monologues, she directed over 100 celebrity actresses in the New York production and then directed the national tour, for which she received a National Broadway Theater Award Nomination. She also directed productions of The Vagina Monologues in Toronto and Mexico City, where it has been a sold-out hit since 2001.

Other stage credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch for the 2004 Fòrum Universal de les Cultures in Barcelona, the NY premiere of Jessica Goldberg's Stuck and the LA premiere of Mike Leigh's Ecstasy, which received an LA Weekly Award and ran for six months at the Odyssey Theater. Also in Los Angeles, Ms. Epstein collaborated with actress/writer Darlene Hunt to develop and direct the stage comedy Platonically Incorrect, featuring Will & Grace star Sean Hayes. Platonically Incorrect went on to become a pilot for ABC Television. She is currently collaborating with Ricki Lake on an upcoming book, Your Best Birth due out in 2009 and a sequel DVD to The Business of Being Born. Ms. Epstein lives in NYC with her partner, photographer and cinematographer Paulo Netto and their 2-year old son, Matteo.