MERYL STREEP (SISTER ALOYSIUS)
Meryl Streep is a two-time Academy Award-winner and recipient of a record-breaking fourteen Oscar nominations.
Most recently, Streep starred in the box office smash Mamma Mia, a film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical based on the songs of ABBA.  She will next appear in Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia as the famed master chef, Julia Child and will lend her voice to Wes Anderson's animated Fantastic Mr. Fox based on the novel by Roald Dahl.
Streep made her film debut in 1977's Julia opposite Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.  In her second screen role, she starred opposite Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter which earned Streep her first Academy Award nomination.  The following year, she won an Academy Award for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer.  She then received her third Academy Award nomination for The French Lieutenant's Woman and later went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Sophie's Choice, where she starred alongside Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline.
Other early film credits include Oscar-nominated performances in Mike Nichols' Silkwood,  Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa, and Fred Schepisi's A Cry in the Dark, which also won her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, The New York Film Critics Circle, and an AFI award.  She also appeared in Mike Nichols' Heartburn and Woody Allen's Manhattan.
In 2003, Streep's work in The Hours won her SAG and Golden Globe nominations.  That same year, her performance in Spike Jonze's Adaptation won her a Golden Globe for Supporting Actress and BAFTA and Oscar nominations.  Streep's other recent works include The Manchurian Candidate; Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and The Devil Wears Prada, which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress as well as Academy Award, SAG and BAFTA nominations. 
In theater, Streep appeared in the 1976 Broadway double-bill of "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" and "A Memory of Two Mondays," the former which won her the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater World Award and a Tony nomination.  Other theater credits include "Secret Service;" "The Cherry Orchard;" the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of "Henry V" and "Measure for Measure" opposite Sam Waterston; the Brecht/Weill musical "Happy End;" "Alice at the Palace" which won her an Obie; Central Park Productions of "The Taming of the Shrew;" "The Seagull," and most recently in the Tony Kushner adaptation of  "Mother Courage."
In TV, Streep won Emmys for the eight part mini-series "Holocaust" and for the Mike Nichols directed HBO movie Angels in America, which also won her Golden Globe and SAG Awards.
In 2004, Streep was honored with an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2008 was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (FATHER FLYNN)
Philip Seymour Hoffman has completed production on Richard Curtis' latest project The Boat That Rocked and recently appeared in Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, which Kaufman wrote and directed. Last year Hoffman starred in the independent film The Savages, for which he won a Best Actor Spirit Award; Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War which earned him an Academy Awardâ nomination for Best Supporting Actor and Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Prior to that, Hoffman starred in Capote, which he executive produced through his company, Cooperstown Productions. In addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, Hoffman earned a Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance. 
Other film credits include Mission Impossible: III, Along Came Polly, Cold Mountain, 25^th Hour, Red Dragon, Punch-Drunk Love,  Love Liza, Almost Famous, State and Main, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia, Happiness, The Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, Nobody's Fool, Scent of a Woman and HBO's Empire Falls.
Hoffman joined the LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995 and became its Co-Artistic Director in 2001. As an actor, his theater credits include LAByrinth's production of "Jack Goes Boating" (The Public Theater), "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (Broadway), "The Seagull" (The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival), "True West" (Broadway), "The Merchant of Venice" (directed by Peter Sellars), "Shopping and F*cking" (New York Theatre Workshop) and "The Author's Voice" (Drama Department). 
His LAByrinth directing credits include the world premieres of "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot," "Our Lady of 121st Street," "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" and "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings," each written by Stephen Adly Guirgis.  Hoffman's celebrated New York production of "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won the 2001 Fringe First Award, and London's Donmar Warehouse, where it was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play of 2002.  It then moved on to London's West End for an extended run at The Arts Theatre. Similarly, his acclaimed production of "Our Lady of 121st Street" transferred Off Broadway to the Union Square Theater, where it ran for nearly six months.
Hoffman also directed Rebecca Gilman's "The Glory of Living" at MCC Theater in 2001.  He traveled to Australia to direct Andrew Upton's "Riflemind" at the famed Sydney Theater Company and most recently he directed the Stephen Adly Guirgis play, "The Little Flower of East Orange" for LAByrinth. 

AMY ADAMS (SISTER JAMES)
Academy Award nominated actress Amy Adams recently wrapped production on Shawn Levy's Night At The Museum 2: Battle at The Smithsonian starring as Amelia Earhart opposite Ben Stiller. Twentieth Century Fox is scheduled to release the film in May 2009.
Adams will star in Nora Ephron's Julie and Julia opposite Meryl Streep. The Columbia Pictures film is adapted from Julie Powell's book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. The film is scheduled to be released in August 2009.
Adams will also star in Christine Jeffs and Karen Moncrieff's Sunshine Cleaning opposite Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin.  The dark family comedy film is about two lost sisters (Adams, Blunt) who find themselves after starting an unlikely business in crime-scene cleanup.  Overture Films is scheduled to release the film in March 2009.
Adams most recently starred in Bharat Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day opposite Frances McDormand. She also starred in Kevin Lima's Enchanted opposite James Marsden, Idina Menzel, Patrick Dempsey and Susan Sarandon. The film grossed over 400 million dollars worldwide and garnered her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.  Adams also recently starred in Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War opposite Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Adams role in Phil Morrison's Junebug in 2005 earned her nominations for an Academy Awardâ and a SAG Award. She won an Independent Spirit Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, a San Francisco Film Critics Society Award, as well as the Breakthrough Gotham Award. Adams also won the Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for her role as the pregnant, childlike 'Ashley,' who is awe-struck by the arrival of her glamorous sister-in-law.
Adams' other film credits include Adam McKay's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with Will Ferrell, and Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio.

VIOLA DAVIS (MRS. MILLER)
Viola Davis made an indelible impression on the screen with her heart-wrenching performance in Denzel Washington's Antwone Fisher, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Immediately upon wrapping production on Doubt, Davis began production on State of Play, with Russell Crowe and Rachael McAdams.  The film, directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), will be released in April 2009.
Davis had a supporting role in the thriller Disturbia starring Shia LeBeouf for director D.J. Caruso. Additional film credits include Far From Heaven with Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore, and Solaris, Traffic and Out of Sight.
In 2001, Davis earned rave reviews for her performance in August Wilson's "King Hedley II," directed by Marion McClinton.  She went on to win the Tony Award that year for Best Featured Actress.
In 2004, Davis lit up the stage in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Lynn Nottage's play, "Intimate Apparel," directed by Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan.  She garnered the highest honors for an off-Broadway play, including Best Actress awards from the Drama Desk, the Drama League, the Obie and the Audelco Award. Davis was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award as well.  She reprised her role at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles where she was recognized with the Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics and the Garland Awards.
Davis is a graduate of The Juilliard School and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts Degree from her alma mater, Rhode Island College.
Davis resides in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Julius Tennon.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY (Writer-Director) had previously been critically lauded as an off-Broadway playwright ("Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," "Italian American Reconciliation," "Four Dogs and a Bone," among many others) and as an Oscar-winning screenwriter (Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, and Olympia Dukakis). In 2004, his play "Doubt" received unanimous rave reviews off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club, and became Shanley's first play to transfer to Broadway.  There, it swept all of that year's major awards, winning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama League Award, the Drama Desk, the Tony, and the Pulitzer. In the third decade of a highly successful career, Shanley's first Broadway play went on to a national tour and launched productions across the country and around the world. 
Shanley was born and raised in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx, where Doubt is set. Educated at parochial schools by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity, he eventually did a stint in the Marines before attending New York University and receiving his degree.
Shanley¹s long list of acclaimed plays, many of which he directed in their original productions, includes "Defiance," "Savage in Limbo," "the dreamer examines his pillow," "Beggars in the House of Plenty," "Where's My Money?," "Italian American Reconciliation," and "Dirty Story." The latter premiered almost simultaneously with "Doubt" and earned him a Drama Desk nomination.
Shanley has had four original screenplays produced:  Five Corners, Moonstruck (Oscar and Writers Guild Award), The January Man, and Joe Versus the Volcano which he also directed. Five Corners won the Special Jury Prize for its screenplay at the Barcelona Film Festival.

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