Arthur Allan Seidelman is an American director whose career spans the mediums of film, television, and theatre. His works are distinguished by a humane and sympathetic depiction of characters facing dramatic ethical challenges.

Seidelman’s most recent film, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, stars Gena Rowlands as the widow of a Southern Baptist minister and Cheyenne Jackson as her gay dance instructor. His film The Sisters, a modern adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, starring Maria Bello, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Tony Goldwyn, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won numerous awards including the Milagro Award for Best American Independent Film. He also directed Walking Across Egypt with Ellen Burstyn, Children of Rage, Echoes, and Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, starring Scott Glenn and Harvey Keitel. His first feature, the iconic comedy, Hercules in New York, introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to films.

As one of a short-list of esteemed directors of films for television, Seidelman directed many award-winning productions, including Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens’ film musical A Christmas Carol starring Kelsey Grammer and Jane Krakowski. He directed four highly-acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame productions: Grace and Glorie starring Gena Rowlands, Diane Lane, and Viola Davis; The Summer of Ben Tyler starring James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern; Harvest of Fire with Patty Duke; and The Runaway with Dean Cain and Maya Angelou. He also directed Like Mother, Like Son starring Mary Tyler Moore, By Dawn’s Early Light with Richard Crenna, The Kid Who Loved Christmas starring Cicely Tyson and Sammy Davis Jr, and Miracle in the Woods starring Della Reese and Meredith Baxter. His film Poker Alice starred Elizabeth Taylor in her first romantic comedy/western. And his film A Friendship in Vienna, starring Jane Alexander and Ed Asner, is screened in schools as a teaching tool about the Holocaust.

Seidelman cut his teeth in television by directing episodes of many renowned series including L.A. Law, Hill Street Blues, Murder She Wrote, Fame, and Magnum P.I.

Seidelman’s Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: Richard Alfieri’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks on Broadway, in Los Angeles, and on London’s West End; The Most Happy Fella for the New York City Opera; Jerry Herman’s Mack and Mabel at Lincoln Center; Billy; Hamp; The Ceremony of Innocence; Awake and Sing; and Tennessee Williams’s Broadway production of Vieux Carré. His other theater credits include Carousel at the Hollywood Bowl, Of Thee I Sing, The Boys from Syracuse, Follies, Hair, Kismet, and Merrily We Roll Along. He also directed The Gypsy Princess for Opera Pacific, Mack and Mabel for the Goodspeed Opera, and Madama Butterfly for the Santa Barbara Opera.

Seidelman’s honors include two Emmys, five Emmy nominations, the Grand Prize from the New York Film and Television Festival, prizes from the Chicago, San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Heartland Film Festivals, the Humanitas Award, Peabody Award, Western Heritage Award, and three Christopher Awards. His most recent honor is the 2023 Sharm El-Sheikh Samiha Ayoub Award for his Contribution to Understanding between Nations and Peoples.