Stan has been preparing for a career in entertainment since creating his own television network in his childhood bedroom in Southfield, Michigan (counter programming, TV grid, advertising, you name it). He even penned a monthly TV column for his junior high school newspaper.
After attending Cranbrook Summer Theatre School, starting at age 7, and Hampton Playhouse as a teen, Stan headed to New York to get his BFA at NYU/Circle-in-the-Square undergraduate drama program. He appeared on Broadway dancing behind Rudolph Nureyev and the Joffrey Ballet in Homage to Diaghilev at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Stan worked in casting before moving to Los Angeles. If you look closely, you can see him in the film, Risky Business. Along with James Berg, they would become Hollywood’s longest running comedy writing team -- Zimmerman & Berg.
Z&B (as they're also known), have worked on many television series, including the legendary Season One of Golden Girls, Brothers, Fame, Hooperman, Something Wilder, Roseanne, Wanda at Large and Gilmore Girls. They have two WGA nominations to their credit: "Rose's Mother" from The Golden Girls and"Don't Ask, Don't Tell", the infamous lesbian kiss episode of Roseanne. Jim and Stan created and exec produced two seasons (40 episodes) of Rita Rocks, a half hour comedy series on Lifetime. The first season is out on DVD. In the world of webseries, they created Skirtchasers, for tellofilms.com. Stan made his scripted directing debut with that show. secs & EXECS, their next project for tellofilms, also directed by Stan, earned Mindy Sterling her first Emmy nomination.
Besides writing/producing many television pilots, Jim and Stan have worked on a few TV movies, including rewriting the Emmy and Peabody award winning Annie for ABC. They also rewrote Christmas Bounty for ABC Family. Most recently they created and wrote the all-star female comedy, Ladies of the 80’s: A Divas Christmas for Lifetime. Their feature film credits include both now iconic Brady Bunch movies. Sure, Jan!
Zimmerman/Berg’s much talked about LOGO pilot script, Silver Foxes, a gay men's Golden Girls, had an epic reading with George Takei, Leslie Jordan, Bruce Vilanch, Todd Sherry, Cheri Oteri, Daniele Gaither and Melissa Peterman. News of the event went viral when no network or streaming company would make the series due to homophobia and ageism. Stan and Jim turned Silver Foxes into a play, which is licensed and pubished by TRWplays. It had its World Premiere at Dallas’ Uptown Players, directed by Michael Urie in March 2023. Further productions included Evolution Theatre Co (Columbus, Ohio) and Ringwald Theatre (Ferndale, MI).
Speaking of theatre, Stan returned to his first love in 1985, when he directed the 30th anniversary revival of Gemini. He went on to direct highly acclaimed productions of: A Tuna Christmas, Spike Heels, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Justin Tanner’s Heartbreak Help, Paul Rudnick's The New Century and World Premieres of Paul Shoulberg’s Synthesis and Pledge. and Peter Ritt's High Maintenance. Stan has directed three solo shows that started at Hollywood Fringe Festival: Larry Blum's BLINK & You Might Miss Me (SF, Vancouver, Palm Springs, NYC, RSVP cruise, BroadwayWorld Award for Best Director-Play), Susannah Blinkoff’s Daughter Of... a musical memoir featuring her own original songs and her mom's, Carol Hall (Best Little Whorehouse) and Teresa Thome's autobiographical Warm Cheese (Grand Rapid's LaughFest, NYC’s United Solo Fest).
Stan has directed all of the original plays he’s co-written with Christian McLaughlin, including Meet & Greet, Knife to the Heart, Have a Good One, and Yes Virginia (both LA companies, and in Pinehurst NC, Onancock VA and a special virtual production).
Stan created The Wendy Chronicles, three Wasserstein play readings in rep (Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't it Romantic, The Heidi Chronicles) for JWT in Santa Monica with a cast of fifteen. During Covid, Stan recorded these three same plays, now titled A Wendy Weekend, for Playbill.com. He doubled the cast size for this virtual version and raised thousands for TDF/The Wendy Wasserstein Project.
Of late, Stan’s passion for marrying art and advocacy has resulted in two ongoing theatre projects. He wrote right before I go., his suicide awareness play, in 2015 and has been appearing in it around the country with well-known performers as well as local actors. With its required Talk Back moderated by local health professionals, the show has been provoking conversation in cities such as Detroit MI, Austin TX, Tampa FL, Palm Springs CA, Ogunquit Maine, Manchester NH, Woodstock NY, Claremont CA, Bethesda MD, Wilmington Delaware, Onancock VA, Decatur Alabama, Washington DC and at NYC’s Town Hall. The play has also been performed by community theatres in Madison Wisconsin, Ashby MA, Long Island NY, and Hamptons NY.
Stan's other long running production is a revival of The Diary of Anne Frank. The show has been running since 2018 with eight iterations and has played theatres in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Downtown LA and Vancouver Canada. It drew national attention with its unique staging and the casting of predominately LatinX actors. Its current home is Burbank’s Colony Theatre. If you’re interested in school daytime shows, email Stan at
Stan directed the music video for the band Whore's Mascara's song All I Want. It aired on LOGO's New Now Next and was nominated for 3 PILL Awards (including Best Video and Best Director) and had a cameo by Laverne Cox.
Stan has taught his sitcom audition classes in LA, NYC, Dallas, Atlanta and at International Thespian conferences at Indiana University. His consulting work took him to Moscow for four months in 2015 to help develop a Russian Roseanne series and to Budapest in 2018 to work on a new sitcom for AMC Hungary. He will be returning as a writing mentor Sept 2025 at the Rocaberti Writers Retreat, which takes place at a 15th century Spanish castle.
Over the years, Stan has directed many staged readings and IT'S ON!, the tv theme song musical he conceived and co-wrote with Christian McLaughlin. Workshop readings for that show were performed at Garry Marshall’s theatre in Toluca Lake, CA and as a NYMF Special Event at NYC’s Signature Theatre. Christian and Stan met Emmy winner, Sheryl Lee Ralph on that project, and she asked them to write the 21st DIVAS Simply Singing benefit (Wilshire Ebell Theatre), which featured an original "Dreamgirls" reunion and the 22nd DIVAS show (DTLA’s Nokia Theatre).
On his own, Stan wrote for Emmy Magazine and appeared on camera as co-host/showrunner on Situation: Comedy, a Project Greenlight-type show about the making of a sitcom pilot. The series, co-produced by Sean Hayes, aired on Bravo. Stan has become the Prince of Podcasts, appearing on multiple shows every month. He also has been a guest panelist for The Golden Girls at D23 in Anaheim CA, two Golden Fans at Sea cruises and at all of the annual fan fests for Gilmore Girls enthusiasts. More info: www.thefanfestsociety.com
Stan’s An Evening on the Lanai: Remembering the Golden Girls with host Alexander Rodriguez has sold out multiple engagements at Oscar's (Palm Springs). They also performed it at Bradshaw Performing Arts Center (Pinehurst, NC). Stan’s been a guest/talking head on live news shows (CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, CNN Newsroom with Ryan Nobles, CNN Newsroom with Frederica Whitfield, CTV News-Toronto, Good Morning, San Diego, NBC 7 San Diego and Ashleigh Banfield). Stan reunited with tellofilms as co-host of the talk show, Brunch Date. Stan appears as a Talking Head in the Magnolia Pictures doc, The World According to Allee Willis.
Stan's memoir, The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore was published by Indigo River Publishing. He appeared in many articles, and on mulitple podcasts and TV morning shows across the United States to publicize it. Stan returned to Bravo to be the "Bartender" on Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live!
