Entertainment
Phil Lesh, bassist for Grateful Dead, dies at 84
Phil Lesh, the bassist for the Grateful Dead who propelled many of its wildest musical explorations yet also composed and sang one of its loveliest songs, “Box of Rain,” has died. He was 84.
An announcement on Lesh’s instagram account went out on Friday: “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.” No cause of death has been reported at this time.
Just this week, Lesh and the Dead’s other founders were announced as the 2025 recipients of the Recording Academy’s prestigious MusiCares Persons of the Year award in recognition of the band’s philanthropy and cultural impact. An all-star tribute concert is planned for Jan. 31 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
A classically trained musician who harbored an affection for jazz and the avant-garde, Lesh was something of an outlier within the Grateful Dead, a group whose two lead vocalists, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, were grounded in folk, bluegrass and blues. A rock ’n’ roll novice when he joined the nascent Dead in 1964, Lesh helped shape the band’s psychedelic aesthetic, especially during its early days when members devoted a portion of their time to exploring the possibilities of the recording studio. Although Lesh never lost his appetite for experimentation, he also honed his skills as a songwriter as the group re-embraced its folk roots on its pivotal early-1970s albums, “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty.” “Box of Rain,” a tribute to Lesh’s late father that marked the bassist’s first lead vocal on a Grateful Dead record, was the pinnacle of this period, but he also had co-writing credits on “Truckin’,” “Cumberland Blues,” “St. Stephen” and “New Potato Caboose,” all crucial parts of the Dead’s songbook.
Grateful Dead biographer David Browne wrote of Lesh, “Beneath that affable exterior lay a taskmaster and perfectionist.” During the band’s first decade of fame, those tendencies manifested in the studio — he sculpted large segments of the aural collages on their second album, “Anthem of the Sun” — and on the stage, where he was one of the vocal advocates for their Wall of Sound, an innovative concert PA system that helped set the standard for arena rock, and also drove the band toward an extended hiatus from the road in 1975. Lesh later claimed that the Dead “was wildly successful for me until we took the break from touring [in 1975]. When we came back, it was never quite the same. Even though it was great and we played fantastic music, something was missing.”
Lesh remained with the Dead through their unexpected upswing in popularity in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a revival partially fueled by the band’s only Top 40 hit, “Touch of Grey.” He nevertheless was a bit of a diminished presence in the group’s later years, and neither wrote nor sang on the group’s final two studio albums. After the Dead disbanded following Garcia’s death in 1995 — a passing that came a year after their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Lesh kept the group’s adventurous spirit alive through a series of musical offshoots, alternating between explicitly solo projects like Phil Lesh and Friends and teaming up with his former bandmates in the Other Ones, Furthur and the Dead. Throughout these excursions, he attempted to stay true to the band’s initial guiding spirit: “The major factor with the Grateful Dead doing what they did and what we’re trying to do still is the Group Mind. When nobody’s really there, there’s only the music. It’s not as if we’re playing the music … the music is playing us.”
Phillip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley. Raised in the Bay Area by working parents, he spent many hours with his grandmother. Hearing broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic drift out of his grandmother’s room sparked a love for music. Lesh persuaded his parents to let him learn to play the violin, eventually abandoning the instrument in his early teens. He switched to trumpet, developing such an intense interest in playing that his parents moved the family back to Berkeley so he could take advantage of the city’s high school music program.
Growing up in Berkeley at the peak of the Beat era, Lesh spent time at bohemian hot spots such as the bookstore City Lights and the Co-Existence Bagel Shop. Initially, college was a bit of a struggle. He dropped out halfway through his first semester at San Francisco State, moving back home to attend the College of San Mateo, and soon transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. His interest in the Beats deepened, complemented by an interest in experimental music, a passion he shared with his friend, keyboardist Tom Constanten. Enamored by the works of Thomas Wolfe in college, Lesh briefly considered pursuing literature academically but he was drawn back to music. Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” opened a door, as did the improvisational adventures of John Coltrane. He drew further inspiration from composer Charles Ives, claiming, “The music of Ives contains the world. … It sounds like the inside of your head when you’re day dreaming.”
The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, left, and Phil Lesh onstage at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theater in 1976 .
(Ed Perlstein/Redferns via Getty Images)
Volunteering as a recording engineer at the noncommercial radio station KPFA, Lesh also spent time attending folk cafes, entering social circles that led him toward Garcia, a folk guitarist with a flair for bluegrass. After Lesh heard Garcia sing the ballad “Matty Groves” at a party in 1962, the pair became fast friends, leading Lesh to record a tape of Garcia that aired on KPFA. It would take a while before the pair chose to collaborate. Lesh dropped out of UC Berkeley and headed to Las Vegas in the summer of 1962, living with Constanten’s family until they’d had enough of the bohemian in their midst. Taking a Greyhound bus back to Palo Alto, Lesh whiled away a few years rooming with Constanten and working at the post office as he composed classical music. Early in 1965, he went to see the Warlocks — the folk-rock group Garcia formed with guitarist Bob Weir, drummer Bill Kreutzmann and keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. Garcia wound up asking Lesh to join the Warlocks as bassist. The fact that Lesh didn’t know how to play bass and only recently had developed an interest in rock ’n’ roll, let alone shown an inclination to play it, caused no concern.
While learning to play bass in the Warlocks, Lesh developed an elastic, melodic style that became as much a Dead signature as Garcia’s winding guitar leads. Once Lesh discovered a single credited to another band called the Warlocks, he had the group and selected associates convene at his apartment to decide upon a new name — a process that came to a standstill until Garcia plucked “the Grateful Dead” from a dictionary.
The Grateful Dead made its debut at one of Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests in 1965. Over the next year, the band would be a fixture at these psychedelic events, cultivating relationships with such figures as their manager Rock Scully and Owsley Stanley, a manufacturer of LSD who helped keep the Dead afloat during their early years; under the moniker “Bear,” he’d become the band’s sound engineer, a passion he shared with Lesh.
By the fall of 1966, the Dead signed with Warner Bros. Records, the label giving the group artistic control as well as unlimited studio time. After quickly cutting the Dead’s eponymous debut album in 1967, Lesh and Garcia soon would take advantage of this clause, spending an inordinate amount of time experimenting in the studio for “Anthem of the Sun” — the first record to feature the Dead’s second drummer, Mickey Hart, as well as Lesh’s college friend Constanten, whose time with the band was brief — and “Aoxomoxoa,” an album they wound up recording twice as they adapted to a new 16-track recorder they acquired. Faced with mounting debt, the band took that 16-track recorder to capture live performances at the Fillmore West and the Avalon, making “Live/Dead,” the album that righted them financially with Warner while also capturing the open-ended improvisations the band played onstage.
The Grateful Dead in 1970, clockwise from top left: Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Mickey Hart and Jerry Garcia.
(Chris Walter/WireImage via Getty Images)
Despite the promise of “Live/Dead,” the Grateful Dead remained on rocky ground in the early 1970s. Nineteen members of their entourage were arrested for drug possession in New Orleans in January 1970 — the event became part of Dead lore when lyricist Robert Hunter immortalized the bust on “Truckin’” — and they’d discover by the end of the year that Lenny Hart, father of Mickey, who was brought aboard in a management role, embezzled much of their money. During all this, the band was able to record two pivotal studio albums: “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty,” lively, folk-inflected rock ’n’ roll records that contained many of the band’s enduring songs, including “Uncle John’s Band,” “Casey Jones,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia” and Lesh and Hunter’s “Box of Rain.”
The inner workings of the Grateful Dead remained fluid in the early 1970s, as the band sustained membership turnover — Mickey Hart returned to the group after an absence, Pigpen retired from the band a year before his 1973 death; his time overlapped with his replacement, Keith Godchaux, who brought along his wife, Donna, as a backing vocalist — and failed business ventures, such as running their own record label. Despite this turmoil, the Dead stabilized in some senses after the twin successes of “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty” established the band’s parallel paths: Onstage they’d chart the outer limits of their sound while attempting to focus on songcraft in the studio.
During the first half of the 1970s, the two avenues proved equally fruitful, but after the triple-live album “Europe 72,” the scales started to tip toward the group’s stage work, at least for their legion of fans known as Deadheads. Deadheads traded amateur recordings of Dead concerts in a practice endorsed by the band. These recordings helped build their fan base throughout the 1970s and ’80s and sustained their popularity long after the band was an active concern. These live recordings had an appeal beyond Deadheads: The group’s May 8, 1977, concert at Cornell University was placed into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011.
The band’s success as a road act eventually caused strain on its members, especially after the cumbersome, expensive tour of 1974, where their music was piped through their custom-made “Wall of Sound,” consisting of more than 600 speakers standing 40 feet high and 70 feet wide. Lesh wrote in his memoir “Searching for the Sound” that “this period (about forty gigs) remains to this day the most generally satisfying performance experience of my life with the band,” but the costs of touring with the system were prohibitive. Once the tour wound down, the Grateful Dead decided to stop performing for the foreseeable future.
As Garcia busied himself with “The Grateful Dead Movie,” hoping a theatrical release of October 1974 shows at the Winterland would satisfy audiences wanting to see live Dead, Lesh entered an aimless period. After collaborating with electronic composer Ned Lagin on the 1975 album “Seastones,” he started to drift and consume too much alcohol. He later remembered, “I didn’t know whether (the band) was ever going to start up again. I’ll be honest with you — that drove me to drink. That fear. I didn’t have a future. I didn’t have any side bands. The Grateful Dead was my band. I helped create it.”
Although the hiatus didn’t last long, it was enough to shift the momentum for Lesh. No longer singing high harmonies — he’d damaged his vocal cords, a condition exacerbated by his alcoholism — Lesh also receded from songwriting, gradually feeling disconnected from the AOR-oriented albums the band made for Arista. He told Dead biographer Browne, “I wasn’t deeply involved in those records. I felt like a sideman.”
Lesh’s fog started to lift in 1982 when he met a waitress named Jill Johnson. Two years later, they married, eventually raising two sons. Family life suited Lesh: He stopped drinking and took his boys on the road. Lesh hadn’t been the only member of the Grateful Dead to battle substance abuse, but in the late 1980s, the entire group had a moment of collective clarity that coincided with the sunny, celebratory “Touch of Grey” becoming an unexpected hit in 1987.
The Grateful Dead in the mid-’80s: Jerry Garcia, from left, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Brent Midland (seated), Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart.
(AP)
“Touch of Grey” introduced a new generation of fans to the Grateful Dead, many much rowdier than the Deadheads who had followed the group through the years. “Its effects were dramatic,” recalled Lesh. “It brought in a number of young people who didn’t really have a feel for the scene and the ethos surrounding it, which was considerable after two decades. We were thrilled with the interest in the band, but it just stood everything on its head. More people wanted to see us, so we had to play larger venues. Playing in front of larger crowds resulted in a loss of intimacy, and for me the experience was all downhill from there.”
Garcia reacted to the increased attention on the Grateful Dead by retreating to the heroin addiction that led to his death from a heart attack on Aug. 9, 1995. The Dead disbanded in the wake of Garcia’s passing. Lesh quickly faced his own health problems: In 1998, he had a successful liver transplant after having a chronic hepatitis C infection. Lesh crept back into action with Phil Lesh and Friends, a collective built on Bay Area musicians that initially played benefit concerts. By 1999, he rejoined Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and latter-day Dead associate Bruce Hornsby in the Other Ones, but his tenure in the group was brief. He and drummer John Molo left in 2000 to concentrate on Phil Lesh and Friends. Warren Haynes, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist who played often with Friends around this time, said, “Phil faced down death and came out the other side and has basically decided to do exactly what he wants with no compromise. That means a band which maintains the Dead’s improvisational quality, while also being more structured.”
Phil Lesh and Friends proved to be successful, eventually outdrawing Weir’s band Ratdog early in the 2000s. Lesh led the band through one studio album — 2002’s “There and Back Again,” featuring songs co-written by Robert Hunter — but that wound up being his last collection of original songs. He returned to the Grateful Dead fold in 2003 as part of the Dead, a touring entity featuring all four surviving members of the original band. The Dead drifted apart after a 2004 tour, so Lesh turned his attention to “Searching for the Sound: My Life With the Grateful Dead,” an autobiography published in 2005. He spent 2006 successfully battling prostate cancer.
Phil Lesh of The Dead performing in 2004.
(Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
After receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 2007, the Dead reunited to play a pair of benefit shows for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Lesh and Weir continued with Furthur, which reconnected to the adventurous improvisations of the Grateful Dead’s spacier excursions. Furthur stayed together for five years, during which time Lesh and his family opened up a performing venue and restaurant called Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael. Inspired by Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble shows in Woodstock, Terrapin Crossroads featured many informal jam sessions headed by Lesh, who often played with his now grown sons as the Terrapin Family Band; he also brought incarnations of Phil Lesh and Friends to the venue.
Lesh decided to retire from touring after the disbandment of Furthur but he agreed to participate in “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead,” a collection of three concerts touted as the last time the four original surviving members of the Grateful Dead would perform together. Although Weir, Kreutzmann and Hart decided to soldier on as Dead & Company, Lesh opted out; this year, Dead & Company played an acclaimed 30-date residency at the state-of-the-art Sphere venue just off the Las Vegas Strip. Lesh kept Terrapin Crossroads as his performing home base through its closure in 2021, stepping aside for various festival appearances with Phil Lesh and Friends, notably joining Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline to play a set as Philco at the Sacred Rose Festival in 2022.
Lesh is survived by his wife, Jill, sons Grahame and Brian and grandson Levon.
Movie Reviews
‘See You When I See You’ Review: Cooper Raiff Gives a Deeply Felt Lead Turn in a Tragicomedy That’s Sad for the Wrong Reasons
After a 14-year hiatus during which he focused on directing television and acting, Jay Duplass made a welcome return to features in 2025 with The Baltimorons, a gentle May-December romance with an After Hours vibe and an unassuming charm that sneaks up on you like a surprise hug. I wish See You When I See You had a similar effect, but despite its sincerity and the raw pain of shattering real-life experience that infuses it, this feels like a knockoff struck from the template of a thousand bittersweet, funny-sad indie grief dramas branded with the old-school Sundance stamp.
Dysfunctional family whose members seem to have forgotten how to communicate? Check. Belabored metaphor that never adds up to much (in this case a sage grouse at risk of extinction)? Check. Surreally stylized flourishes that are both awkwardly realized and inorganic to the prevailing mood and style? Check. Random nostalgic nods to ‘90s bands? Check. Treasured childhood memory tarnished by soul-crushing trauma? Check. Tinkly piano score poised to underline every emotional beat? Check. The list could go on.
See You When I See You
The Bottom Line Not if I see you first.
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)
Cast: Cooper Raiff, Hope Davis, Lucy Boynton, Ariela Barer, Kumail Nanjiani, Poorna Jagannathan, David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever
Director: Jay Duplass
Screenwriter: Adam Cayton-Holland, based on his book, Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir
1 hour 42 minutes
All this is a shame since first-time screenwriter Adam Cayton-Holland, adapting his 2018 memoir Tragedy Plus Time, is clearly drawing from a very personal well in depicting with candor the spiraling chaos of a young comedy writer as he struggles to move forward after his beloved younger sister’s suicide. The authenticity of the writer-protagonist’s feelings is undermined by the banal familiarity of a specific indie-film model.
It’s doubly regrettable because Cooper Raiff pours a ton of heart and humor, along with PTSD, into the author’s stand-in, Aaron Whistler. He’s likable and funny, and even when the character is pushing people away like a flailing mess, he never forfeits the audience’s compassion.
Duplass could not have wished for better preparation for material of this nature than his work as producer and director of six episodes — including the pilot — of HBO’s sublime Bridget Everett series Somebody Somewhere. That series started from a similar place, with a central character trying to regain her footing after the shattering loss of a sibling and tending to deflect her sorrow with humor. Every single member of the ensemble felt fully lived-in and relatable, something that can be said for only some of the principal roles here.
It’s been two months since Leah (Kaitlyn Dever) took her own life and her devastated family has still not been able to agree on funeral arrangements — if they are to have one at all. The urn containing her ashes sits conspicuously on the mantlepiece in her parents’ loveless bedroom.
Leah’s mother Page (Hope Davis) has become closed-off and sour, doing her best to ignore her own grave health situation; her husband Robert (David Duchovny) pours himself into his work as a civil rights attorney, avoiding the subject of Leah; their other daughter Emily (Lucy Boynton), who has her own young son to care for, urges Aaron to see a therapist and goes from impatience to anger at the extent to which his grief has hijacked everyone else’s loss. Aaron and Leah were always members of a private club from which Emily felt excluded.
A big part of Aaron’s trauma is that he was the one who found his little sister’s body; when he is forced, after a DUI charge, to sign up for a mental health diversion program, he’s uncooperative and hostile with the therapist, who tells him nothing he didn’t already know. Later, when he finds an empathetic therapist with whom he connects (Poorna Jagannathan), Aaron initially remains blocked, only able to revisit the night he found Leah dead up to a point.
Raiff is very good in these scenes, which makes it frustrating that the memory flashes throughout of time spent with Leah are so clunky and obvious. Dever is always a compelling presence, but Leah seems more like a bundle of exposed nerve endings than a real person — the dangerous, out-of-control highs, the precipitous lows, the psych ward stints. The worst part, though, is a thuddingly literal device so poorly handled it yanks you out of the movie every time — a hole opens up in the ceiling or sky at a certain point in Aaron’s recollections, and Leah is sucked up into the atmosphere.
There are sweet interludes when Aaron reconnects with his girlfriend Camila (Ariela Barer), who is furious about him ghosting her for months until she learns the reason. Still, it’s clear to her that Aaron is not OK, causing her to pull away again.
The scenes that work less well and seem virtually superfluous are those with Kumail Nanjiani as Adeel, an environmental activist who drags Aaron along with him to break into a fracking site that is disturbing the breeding ground of…the sage grouse.
Duplass can’t be accused of lacking sensitivity as a director, and in the moments when See You When I See You works best, the movie has an infectious warmth. Until it turns into treacly cliché. The performances mostly are better than the material deserves — Raiff in particular, but also Davis and Boynton. No one enjoys beating up on a film in which the writer has invested so much of himself and his pain. But Cayton-Holland and Duplass have somehow made an authentic tragedy feel phony and unaffecting.
Entertainment
Writers Guild Awards nominations include ‘Sinners,’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and more
The awards momentum for “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” continues to build.
Ryan Coogler’s historical vampire horror and Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedic political thriller were among the nominees for the 78th Writers Guild Awards announced Tuesday. Both films were also nominated in their respective writing categories for the 2026 Oscars.
Along with “Sinners,” the original screenplay nominees include the spy thriller “Black Bag” (David Koepp), the parental psychological dramedy “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (Mary Bronstein), the ping-pong picture “Marty Supreme” (Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie) and the multi-perspective mystery horror “Weapons” (Zach Cregger).
Joining “One Battle After Another” in the adapted screenplay category are the alien comedy “Bugonia” (Will Tracy), the gothic monster movie “Frankenstein” (Guillermo del Toro), the Shakespeare tragedy “Hamnet” (Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell) and the period piece “Train Dreams” (Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar).
The television series nominations included past nominees such as “Andor,” “Severance” and “The White Lotus” on the drama side, as well as comedies “Abbot Elementary” and “Hacks.” New series being recognized include “The Pitt,” “The Studio,” “The Chair Company” “Pluribus” and “Task.”
The winners will be announced at at concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York on March 8. The Los Angeles-based show will be hosted by Atsuko Okatsuka and streamed live on the WGA West’s YouTube channel.
Screenplay nominees
Original screenplay
“Black Bag,” David Koepp
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Mary Bronstein
“Marty Supreme,” Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
“Sinners,” Ryan Coogler
“Weapons,” Zach Cregger
Adapted screenplay
“Bugonia,” Will Tracy (based on the film “Save the Green Planet,” written and directed by Jang Joon Hwan)
“Frankenstein,” Guillermo del Toro (based on “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley)
“Hamnet,” Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell (based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell)
“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson (inspired by the novel “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon)
“Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar (based on the novella by Denis Johnson)
Documentary screenplay
“2,000 Meters to Andriivka,” Mstyslav Chernov
“Becoming Led Zeppelin,” Bernard MacMahon & Allison McGourty
“White with Fear,” Andrew Goldberg
Television, streaming and news nominees
Drama series
“Andor” — Tom Bissell, Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Beau Willimon
“The Pitt” — Cynthia Adarkwa, Simran Baidwan, Valerie Chu, R. Scott Gemmill, Elyssa Gershman, Joe Sachs, Noah Wyle
“Pluribus” — Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, Vince Gilligan, Jonny Gomez, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock
“Severance” — Adam Countee, Mohamad El Masri, Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman, Anna Ouyang Moench, K.C. Perry, Megan Ritchie, Erin Wagoner, Beau Willimon, Wei-Ning Yu
“The White Lotus” — Mike White
Comedy series
“Abbott Elementary” — Quinta Brunson, Ava Coleman, Lizzy Darrell, Riley Dufurrena, Justin Halpern, Joya McCrory, Chad Morton, Morgan Murphy, Brittani Nichols, Rebekka Pesqueira, Kate Peterman, Brian Rubenstein, Patrick Schumacker, Justin Tan, Jordan Temple, Garrett Werner
“The Chair Company” — Zach Kanin, Gary Richardson, Tim Robinson, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, John Solomon
“Hacks” — Genevieve Aniello, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jess Dweck, Ariel Karlin, Andrew Law, Carolyn Lipka, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Jen Statsky
“The Rehearsal” — Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola
“The Studio” — Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Frida Perez, Seth Rogen
New series
“The Chair Company” — Zach Kanin, Gary Richardson, Tim Robinson, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, John Solomon
“The Pitt” — Cynthia Adarkwa, Simran Baidwan, Valerie Chu, R. Scott Gemmill, Elyssa Gershman, Joe Sachs, Noah Wyle
“Pluribus” — Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, Vince Gilligan, Jonny Gomez, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock
“The Studio” — Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Frida Perez, Seth Rogen
“Task” — Brad Ingelsby & David Obzud
Limited series
“The Beast in Me” — Howard Gordon, C.A. Johnson, Ali Liebegott, Daniel Pearle, Gabe Rotter, Erika Sheffer, Mike Skerrett
“Black Rabbit” — Zach Baylin, Sarah Gubbins, Kate Susman, Andrew Hinderaker, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Carlos Rios
“Death by Lightning” — Mike Makowsky
“Dying for Sex” — Sheila Callaghan, Harris Danow, Madeleine George, Elizabeth Meriwether, Kim Rosenstock, Sasha Stewart, Sabrina Wu, Keisha Zollar
“Sirens” — Bekah Brunstetter, Dan LeFranc, Colin McKenna, Molly Smith Metzler
TV & streaming motion pictures
“The Best You Can,” Michael J. Weithorn
“Deep Cover,”Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow
“The Life List,” Adam Brooks (based on the novel by Lori Nelson Spielman)
“Swiped,” Bill Parker & Rachel Lee Goldenberg and Kim Caramele
Animation
“Abe League of Their Moe,” Joel H. Cohen (“The Simpsons”)
“Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy,” Lindsey Stoddart (“Bob’s Burgers”)
“It’s a Beef-derful Life,” Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux (“The Great North”)
“Parahormonal Activity,” Loni Steele Sosthand (“The Simpsons”)
“Scared Screenless,” Bill Odenkirk (“Futurama”)
“Shira Can’t Cook,” Mehar Sethi (“Long Story Short”)
Episodic drama
“7:00 A.M.,” R. Scott Gemmill (“The Pitt”),
“A Still Small Voice,” Brad Ingelsby (“Task”)
“Charm Offensive,” (“Pluribus”)
“Execution,” Eric Tuchman (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
“Got Milk,” Ariel Levine (“Pluribus”)
“Reunion,” Mara Brock Akil (“Forever”)
Episodic comedy
“A Call from God,” Mohammed Amer & Harris Danow (“Mo”)
“Pilot’s Code,” Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola (“The Rehearsal”)
“Prelude,” John Carcieri, Jeff Fradley, Danny R. McBride (“The Righteous Gemstones”)
“The Promotion,” Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Peter Huyck & Alex Gregory & Frida Perez (“The Studio”)
“The Sleazy Georgian,” Megan Amram (“Poker Face”)
“Worms,” Ayo Edebiri & Lionel Boyce (“The Bear”)
Comedy/variety series – talk or sketch
“The Daily Show,” Head Writer: Dan Amira; Senior Writers: Lauren Sarver Means, Daniel Radosh; Writers: David Angelo, Nicole Conlan, Devin Delliquanti, Zach DiLanzo, Jennifer Flanz, Jason Gilbert, Dina Hashem, Scott Hercman, Josh Johnson, David Kibuuka, Matt Koff, Matt O’Brien, Joe Opio, Randall Otis, Zhubin Parang, Kat Radley, Lanee’ Sanders, Scott Sherman, Jon Stewart, Ashton Womack, Sophie Zucker
“Have I Got News for You,” Head Writer: Mason Steinberg; Writers: Jim Biederman, Daniel Chamberlain, Jodi Lennon, Michael Pielocik, Jill Twiss
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” Senior Writers: Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali; Writers: Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Sofía Manfredi, John Oliver, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford
“Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Head Writer: Alex Baze; Supervising Writers: Seth Reiss, Mike Scollins; Closer Look Supervising Writer: Sal Gentile; Writers: Jermaine Affonso, Bryan Donaldson, Matt Goldich, Jenny Hagel, John Lutz, Seth Meyers, Amber Ruffin, Mike Shoemaker, Ben Warheit, Jeff Wright
“Saturday Night Live,” Head Writers: Alison Gates, Erik Kenward, Streeter Seidell, Kent Sublette; Senior Writer: Bryan Tucker; Supervising Writers: Dan Bulla, Will Stephen, Auguste White, Celeste Yim; Writers: Steven Castillo, Michael Che, Mike DiCenzo, Jimmy Fowlie, Sudi Green, Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Allie Levitan, Ben Marshall, Lorne Michaels, Jake Nordwind, Ceara O’Sullivan, Moss Perricone, Carl Tart, Asha Ward; “Weekend Update” Head Writer: Pete Schultz; “Weekend Update” Writers: Rosebud Baker, Megan Callahan-Shah, Dennis McNicholas, Josh Patten, KC Shornima
“They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce,” Writers: Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Jon Glaser, Tami Sagher
Comedy/variety specials
“82nd Annual Golden Globes,” Written by Barry Adelman, Nefetari Spencer, Mike Gibbons, Brian Frange, Sean O’Connor, Alex Baze, Bob Castrone, Chris Convy, Anna Drezen, Jess Dweck, Noah Garfinkel, Lauren Greenberg, Ben Hoffman, Ian Karmel, Andrew Law, Mike Lawrence, Jon Macks, Bonnie McFarlane, Chris Spencer, Matt Whitaker
“The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation,” Written by Ian Berger, Devin Delliquanti, Jen Flanz, Jordan Klepper, Zhubin Parang, Scott Sherman
“Marc Maron: Panicked,” Written by Marc Maron
“Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor,” Written by Jon Macks, Chris Convy, Lauren Greenberg, Skyler Higley, Ian Karmel, Sean O’Connor
“SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” Written by James Anderson, Dan Bulla, Megan Callahan Shah, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Mike DiCenzo, James Downey, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fowlie, Alison Gates, Sudi Green, Jack Handey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Jake Nordwind, Ceara O’Sullivan, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Bryan Tucker, Auguste White
Quiz and audience participation
“Celebrity Jeopardy!,” Head Writer: Robert Patton; Writers: Kyle Beakley, Michael Davies, Terence Gray, Amy Ozols, Tim Siedell, David Levinson-Wilk
“Jeopardy!,” Writers: Marcus Brown, Buzzy Cohen, Michael Davies, John Duarte, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Jim Rhine, Michele Loud, Robert McClenaghan, Amy Ozols, Billy Wisse
Daytime drama
“Beyond the Gates,” Writers: Sara A. Bibel, Jazmen Darnell Brown, Ron Carlivati, Susan Dansby, Cheryl L. Davis, Christopher Dunn, Robert Guza Jr., Gregori J. Martin, Lynn Martin, Danielle Paige, Judy Tate, Michele Val Jean, Teresa Zimmerman
“General Hospital,” Head Writers: Elizabeth Korte, Chris Van Etten; Writers: Cathy LePard, Emily Culliton, Nigel Campbell, Suzanne Flynn, Charlotte Gibson, Kate Hall, Stacey Pulwer, Ryan Quan, Louise Rozett, Scott Sickles, Micah Steinberg
“The Young and the Restless, Associate,” Head Writers: Jeff Beldner, Marla Kanelos, Dave Ryan; Writers: Susan Banks, Amanda L. Beall, Marin Gazzaniga, Rebecca McCarty, Madeleine Phillips
Children’s episodic, long form and specials
“The First Snow of Fraggle Rock,” Matt Fusfeld & Alex Cuthbertson
“Stay Out of the Basement: Part I,” Rob Letterman, Hilary Winston (“Goosebumps”)
“Merry Giftmas,” Halcyon Person
“I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals,” Craig Silverstein, Rick Riordan (“Percy Jackson and the Olympians”)
“When We Lose Someone” Sean Presant (“Tab Time”)
Short form streaming
“The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel,” Jimmy Kimmel & Jesse Joyce
“Sesame Street YouTube: Take a Moment with Jonathan Bailey,” Andrew Moriarty
Documentary script – current events
“Syria After Assad,” Martin Smith (“Frontline”)
“The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram,” Thomas Jennings and A.C. Thompson (“Frontline”)
“The Rise of RFK Jr.,” Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser (“Frontline”)
“Trump’s Power & the Rule of Law,” Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser (“Frontline”)
Documentary script – other than current events
“Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act,” Chana Gazit (“American Experience”)
“Clearing the Air: The War on Smog,” Peter Yost & Edna Alburquerque (“American Experience”)
“Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP,” Rob Rapley (“American Experience”)
“Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer’s,” Jason Sussberg
“Mr. Polaroid,” Gene Tempest (“American Experience”)
News script – regularly scheduled, bulletin, or breaking report
“Devastating Flooding in Texas,” David Muir, Karen Mooney, and Dave Bloch (“World News Tonight with David Muir”)
“The L.A. Wildfires,” David Muir, Dave Bloch, and Karen Mooney (“World News Tonight with David Muir”)
News script – analysis, feature, or commentary
“Eye on America: Coldwater Creek,” Cait Bladt
“Gaza, Hannah Arendt, and The Banality of Evil,” Basel Hamdan
“Mysterious Russian Deaths,” Michael Rey, Cecilia Vega, Oriana Zill de Granados (“60 Minutes”)
“Remembering Palestinian Journalists Killed by Israeli Forces,” Lisa Salinas
“Uphill Battle,” Richard Buddenhagen, Kay Lim, Lesley Stahl (“CBS News Sunday Morning”)
Digital news
“Altadena Residents Know Their Community Is Worth Rebuilding. Can They Protect Its Legacy?,” Taiyler Mitchell
“American Siberia,” Alexander Sammon
“An Isolated Boarding School Promised to Help Troubled Girls. Former Students Say They Were Abused.,” Sebastian Murdock and Taiyler Mitchell
“How Cassie’s Lawsuit Against Diddy Galvanized A Movement of Survivors,” Njera Perkins and Taiyler Mitchell
“Trump Sent Them to Hell. Now He’s Erasing Them Altogether,” Matt Shuham and Jessica Schulberg
Radio/audio nominees
Radio/audio documentary
“Episode 2: A Game of Telephone,” Heather Rogers, Rachel Humphreys, Colin McNulty (“Camp Swamp Road”)
“Jerry Lewis’ Lost Holocaust Clown Movie,” Max Freedman (“Decoder Ring”)
“Why Women Kill,” Mary Harris and Elena Schwartz (“What Next”)
Radio/audio news script – regularly scheduled, bulletin, or breaking report
“ABC News Radio Top of the Hour News,” Robert Hawley
“CBS World News Roundup,” Paul Farry and Steve Kathan
“Hasan Piker Knew Charlie Kirk,” Mary Harris and Madeline Ducharme (“What Next”)
Radio/audio news script – analysis, feature, or commentary
“How Will We Feed Our Neighbors?,” Mary Harris and Anna Phillips
“The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter,” Gail Lee
“We Made a Memecoin,” Lizzie O’Leary, Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort
On-air promotion
“Behind the Crown: King & Conqueror EPK,” Molly Neylan
“CBS Comedy,” Dan Greenberger
Movie Name : Sirai
Streaming Date : Jan 23, 2026
Streaming Platform : ZEE5
123telugu.com Rating : 3.25/5
Starring : Vikram Prabhu, LK Akshay Kumar, Anishma Anilkumar, Ananda Thambirajah
Director : Suresh Rajakumari
Producer : SS Lalit Kumar
Music Director : Justin Prabhakaran
Cinematographer : Madhesh Manickam
Editor : Philomin Raj
Related Links : Trailer
Sirai marks the 25th film of actor Vikram Prabhu. The Tamil movie was released on Christmas Eve and went on to score hit status at the box office. It has now arrived on OTT with a Telugu dub, and here is our review of the crime drama.
Story:
Set in 2003 in Guntur, Srinivas (Vikram Prabhu) is a head constable in the Armed Reserve (AR). During an escort duty, a prisoner attempts to escape, forcing Srinivas to shoot him dead, which puts him under scrutiny by higher authorities. While the enquiry is still ongoing, Srinivas is assigned another escort duty to transport Abdul Rauf (L. K. Akshay Kumar), a murder convict, from a central prison to Kurnool. During the journey, Srinivas senses something amiss, and the situation worsens when Abdul goes missing. With the prisoner required to be produced in court the very next day, the tension escalates. What happens next? Does Srinivas and his team manage to trace Abdul? Who is Abdul, and what is his backstory? The rest of the film unfolds the answers.
Plus Points:
The film touches upon a different and rarely explored aspect of police life. Unlike most films that focus on senior officers and portray them heroically, Sirai revolves around a head constable from the Armed Reserve. Srinivas is shown as a grounded human being rather than a larger-than-life policeman, which makes the approach refreshing.
Vikram Prabhu delivers a neat performance, but the actor who truly stands out is L. K. Akshay Kumar. He effectively portrays the dilemma, pain, and hope of a prisoner, and his performance becomes a major driving force of the film.
The flashback narrated from Abdul’s point of view is emotional and engaging. Along with the emotional depth, the suspense maintained in certain scenes, especially during the escape sequence and the pre-climax and climax portions, works well.
The police station episode after the escape, the emotional scenes in the final 30 minutes, including the courtroom portions, and the suspense-filled climax are well executed and keep the viewer engaged.
Anishma Anilkumar, as Kalavathi, delivers a neat performance. The remaining cast members perform adequately.
Minus Points:
There is limited scope to point out major drawbacks. Some viewers may find the initial portions slightly routine, but the narrative picks up as the film progresses.
Though Vikram Prabhu is the lead, his role offers limited scope for performance. While he gets sufficient screen time, the character does not demand much in terms of expressions. His personal life angle is underdeveloped, and the character of his wife adds little value to the story. In the flashback portions, the love story and conflict scenes could have been explored in more detail.
Technical Aspects:
Despite this being his debut, director Suresh Rajakumari impresses with his screenplay and execution, giving the film the feel of an experienced filmmaker’s work.
Justin Prabhakaran’s background score is one of the film’s highlights and plays a key role in maintaining suspense and enhancing emotional moments. Madhesh Manickam’s cinematography is neat and serves the narrative well.
Editing by Philomin Raj is effective, keeping the film crisp within its two-hour runtime. The production values are decent, and the Telugu dubbing is clean and well done.
Verdict:
On the whole, Sirai is an engaging crime drama backed by a solid screenplay and effective execution. Vikram Prabhu is decent, but L. K. Akshay Kumar steals the show. The police station episode, flashback portions, emotional moments, and suspenseful climax make it a film worth watching. Though the narration feels slightly slow in the beginning, it does not last long. On the whole, Sirai is definitely worth a watch for its content, execution, empathy, and humanity.
123telugu.com Rating: 3.25/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team
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