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Elena Holy is a founder and current artistic director of The New York International Fringe Festival, the annual downtown theater institution.

Georgia native Holy was Broadway producer Richard Frankel's assistant for seven years before she founded the Fringe Fest (named after the original Fringe Festival in Edinburgh) in 1996 as a venue for small, edgy, off-off Broadway productions. After running the Fest as a side project for two years, Holy finally quit her day job in 1998 to run it full-time via her production company, The Present Company. The Fringe Festival has exploded in both size and popularity since then: it now features hundreds of shows, sells thousands of tickets, and has even birthed several bona fide commercial hits. Fringe NYC has served as a launching pad for offbeat successes like Urinetown (which became a much-hyped, Tony-awarded Broadway musical), Matt & Ben, Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame, and Dog Sees God, a modern version of the Peanuts cartoon. The festival has also become a place for agents and producers to spot up-and-coming talent.