Gregor Collins

Gregor Collins is an American author, speaker, producer and former actor, most known for writing The Accidental Caregiver, a memoir about the three years he spent with Maria Altmann.

Career Collins moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to pursue a career in entertainment. He worked his way into producing various reality television shows such as Blind Date, Celebrity Mole: Yucatán, Girls Gone Wild, Ripley's Believe it or Not, E! at the Emmy Awards, Welcome to Myrtle Manor and Counting Cars. In 2004 he began to pursue professional acting, eventually performing on stage, in television and in independent films, landing lead roles in the indie feature Night Before the Wedding and the improvised feature Goodbye Promise, which the Los Angeles Times called a "simple, richly emotional look at a failed actor's introspective last days in Hollywood."

In October 2014 Collins moved to the Murray Hill, Manhattan section of New York, living with and serving as a caregiver to Austrian painter Ruth Rogers-Altmann while he prepared a stage production of his book The Accidental Caregiver, about his experience caring for Rogers-Altmann's cousin Maria Altmann.

Collins has written essays about Ruth and Maria for The Guardian, Focus, Huffington Post and others, and has been a regular contributor to CinemaEditor since 2013.

The Accidental Caregiver In 2012 Collins released the memoir The Accidental Caregiver: How I Met, Loved and Lost Legendary Holocaust Refugee Maria Altmann, detailing his chance meeting and unusual bond with Jewish émigré Maria Altmann, culminating in her death in early 2011.

In 2018 Collins was the keynote speaker for events called Love, Maria in New York, Miami, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth—all sponsored by the Women's International Zionist Organization—and in 2019 was the keynote speaker for an event called Te Amo, Maria at the Jewish Cultural and Community Center in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

The Accidental Caregiver Part 2 was published in 2020 by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, and follows Collins' life after Maria's death and his accidental speaking tour across Australia with WIZO. As of 2024, Collins is working on a third and final installment of the caregiver series.

Stage plays The Accidental Caregiver stageplay premiered at Playwrights Horizons' Robert Moss Theater in New York City on January 26, 2015, and was directed by British theatre director Alice Kornitzer. The play also had a staged reading at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York on June 25, 2015, which was directed by Collins. Actors Christian Scheider and Rochelle Slovin read the parts of Gregor and Maria, respectively.

In November 2015 Collins wrote the Oscar Wilde-inspired dark comedy Pentonville for the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in New York, which was directed by Jonathan Stuart Cerullo. In June 2016 Collins created, co-wrote and co-produced the black comedy series Stories for Ali Farahnakian and the People's Improv Theater in New York.

In January 2017 Collins' play The Secret World Inside Me was developed and performed as a staged reading at the IATI Theater in New York.

Personal life

Collins resides in Arlington, Virginia and has a Vizsla named Lucy.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 2004 Passions Bartender TV-series 2005 Creepies 2 Jeff Quest Film 2005 Manhater Jackson Botero Film 2005 The Witch's Sabbath Derek Film 2006 The World's Astonishing News Prison Guard TV-series 2006 Blood Legend Clark Film 2007 Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide Bouncer TV-Series 2007 Ocean's Thirteen Stickman Film 2007 Loveless in Los Angeles Peter Film 2009 Night Before the Wedding Bronco Film 2009 Chloe and Keith's Wedding Zach Film 2011 Urban Jungle Dating Dilemmas Matt TV-Series 2012 Goodbye Promise Matt Film