Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler
Ensler in March 2011
Born	(1953-05-25) May 25, 1953 (age 63) New York City, USA
Occupation	Playwright, writer, performer
Spouse(s)	Richard McDermott (1978-1988; divorced)
Website	EveEnsler.org

Eve Ensler (born May 25, 1953) is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006 Charles Isherwood of the New York Times called The Vagina Monologues "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade."

In 2011, Ensler was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations.

Ensler was born in New York City, the second of three children of Arthur Ensler, an executive in the food industry, and Chris Ensler. She was raised in the northern suburb of Scarsdale. Her father was Jewish and her mother Christian, and she grew up in a predominantly Jewish community; however, Ensler identifies as a Nichiren Buddhist and states that her spiritual practice includes chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō and doing yoga.

Ensler says that from the ages of five to 10, she was sexually and physically abused by her father. Growing up, she has stated she was "very sad, very angry, very defiant. I was the girl with the dirty hair. I didn't fit anywhere."

Ensler attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where she became known as a militant feminist. After graduating in 1975, she had a string of abusive relationships and became dependent on drugs and alcohol. In 1978, she married Richard Dylan McDermott, a 34-year-old bartender, who convinced her to enter rehab. When she was 23, she adopted Mark Anthony McDermott, her husband's 16-year-old son from his first marriage. Their relationship came to be a close one, and Ensler has stated that it taught her "how to be a loving human being." After Ensler suffered a miscarriage, Mark took the name she had planned for her baby, Dylan. Ensler and Dylan's father were separated in 1988, the former citing that she "needed the independence, the freedom". According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, "After her marriage ended, she had a long relationship with the artist and psychotherapist Ariel Orr Jordan but is single now, which seems to suit her nomadic lifestyle - she has homes in New York and Paris but travels much of the year."