Woody Allen is a person.
Heywood `` Woody '' Allen ( born Allan Stewart Konigsberg ; December 1 , 1935 ) is an American director , writer , actor , comedian , playwright , and musician whose career spans more than six decades . By the mid-1960s Allen was writing and directing films , first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the 1970s , and alternating between comedies and dramas to the present . He is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s .