Anthony Wilkinson

A born and raised New York native, Anthony is a graduate of NYU's College of Arts and Sciences for English and Creative Writing. He started his career as an Intern Writer at ABC Daytime's One Life To Live in 1996 and during his fourteen years there he worked his way up to the position of Associate Director. While in that position he earned three Daytime Emmy Awards, seven nominations and was a two-time recipient of the Directors Guild of America Award. Anthony's original production of My Big Gay Italian Wedding started his other passion in the theatre world, when it opened Off-Broadway in 2003 at the Actor's Playhouse and later moved to Theatre Four in the spring of 2004. In 2006, Anthony wrote and starred as "Rio La Rocca" in the Off-Broadway production of Boys Just Wanna Have Fun. Anthony re-staged My Big Gay Italian Wedding in September of 2009 at the St. George Theatre for an audience of almost 2,000 people. After much discussion and huge debates with regards to the topic, its rave reviews and success prompted an explosive revival on Restaurant Row with a full out Equity cast in April of 2010. The run was expected to last six weeks, and wound up extending 14 times in the same location. During the run, the show hosted some major celebrities in efforts to help raise money and awareness for marriage equality and the Trevor Project. Aside from New York City, the show has already played in multiple cities in the US as well as Edinburgh, London, Vancouver, Hong Kong and parts of France. On March 1, 2018, the film "Puoi Baciare Lo Sposo" opened all over Italy, an Italian film version based on the play "My Big Gay Italian Wedding." The film has been distributed with subtitles across different parts of the world and did extremely well in the box office. In June of 2013 Anthony opened the sequel to My Big Gay Italian Wedding, My Big Gay Italian Funeral. Funeral ran for over two years at St. Luke's Theater in New York City, and continues to be licensed in multiple locations by Samuel French. Wilkinson's next chapter, "My Big Gay Italian Midlife Crisis" opened at the Theater Center Off-Broadway in November of 2015 and was published by Samuel French in 2016. In December of 2017, Wilkinson launched the fourth chapter of the series "My Big Gay Italian Christmas," which opened in Atlantic City at the Golden Nugget Casino as a special holiday production. "My Big Gay Italian Christmas" was published by Samuel French in 2020. Wilkinson continues to play the role he originated "Anthony Pinnunziato" in multiple productions. Anthony can now be seen on Amazon Prime on the new hit series "Tainted Dreams," which landed him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Digital Drama Series. As of 2017 he has been employed by Woodbridge Township, NJ and was appointed as the Executive & Artistic Director for the new Avenel Performing Arts Center which opened in April of 2019.