Anthony E. Zuiker

Anthony E. Zuiker is one of the most creative and multifaceted individuals working in Hollywood today. He is the creator of television’s hugely successful CSI franchise, which includes CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. The original CSI has received widespread critical acclaim and was recently named the most watched series in the world for the fourth time in five...

Bill  Cosby

One of America's most beloved comedians of all time, Bill Cosby has captivated generations of fans with his comedy routines, iconic albums and best-selling books such as Fatherhood. His comedy transcends age, gender and cultural barriers. Cosby broke television's racial barrier with I Spy, becoming the first African American to costar on a television series while winning three consecutive...

David Simon

David Simon, 49, is a Baltimore-based journalist, author and television producer. Born in Washington, he came to Baltimore in 1983 to work as a crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun. While at the paper, he reported and wrote two works of narrative non-fiction, Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the former an account of a...

Doug Ellin

Doug Ellin, Creator and Executive Producer of Entourage moved to Hollywood from his native New York in 1990 to become a stand-up comedian. While working the circuit at comedy club mainstays including The Improv and The Comedy Store, Ellin took a position in the mailroom of New Line Cinema. It was through this connection to New Line Production Head, Michael DeLuca, that Ellin's career was able...

Dustin Lance Black

Dustin Lance Black is a screenwriter, producer, director and social activist, having won the Academy Award® and two WGA Awards for Best Original Screenplay for MILK, the biopic of the late civil rights activist Harvey Milk starring Sean Penn. He is also a founding board members of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) which is leading the Federal Case against Prop 8 in CA with...

Geoffrey  Fletcher

Geoffrey Fletcher is an Academy Award winning writer and director who has penned numerous screenplays and directed many short films. Initially working with a video camera and cast of toys and action figures, he began making films as a child. Those films in part led to his acceptance to NYU's Tisch Graduate Film Program, which he attended after his graduation from Harvard University. He has also...

John Patrick Shanley

An accomplished and award-winning writer and director, John Patrick Shanley has written extensively for film and the stage. His play Doubt, which opened off-Broadway in 2004, became the first of his plays to transfer to Broadway and then to the screen. The screen adaptation of Doubt, written and directed by Shanley, has earned him 2009 Academy Award and Writers Guild Award nominations for best...

Joss Whedon

Emmy winner and Oscar nominee JOSS WHEDON is one of Hollywood's top creators, scripting and directing several hit films including THE AVENGERS and creating one of television's most critically praised shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Born in New York, Whedon is a third-generation television writer. His grandfather and father were both successful sitcom writers on shows such as...

Katori Hall

Katori Hall is a playwright performer from Memphis, TN. Hurt Village won the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was a finalist for the Ruby Award. The script is being adapted into a film and was developed at the 2011 Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Hall’s other plays include: The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play), which recently ran on Broadway at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre...

Lynn  Nottage

Lynn Nottage's play, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark,enjoyed an extended run Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre (Lily Award, Drama Desk Nomination). It can be seen at The Geffen Playhouse and Goodman Theatre. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined, which involves the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club and Goodman Theatre (OBIE...

Matthew Weiner

Matthew Weiner is the series creator and executive producer of Mad Men, an AMC original series. Since its debut, the series has garnered four consecutive Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Drama Series; three consecutive Golden Globe® Awards for Best Television Drama Series; a Peabody Award; three Producers Guild Awards; four Writers Guild Awards; AFI Awards for one of the Top 10 Outstanding...

Paul Haggis

Paul Haggis is the award-winning filmmaker who, in 2006, became the first screenwriter to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back – Million Dollar Baby (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, and Crash (2005) which he himself directed. For Crash, he won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film also received an additional four nominations including one for...

Phil Rosenthal

In conjunction with the release of his book You’re Lucky You’re Funny, Everybody Loves Raymond executive producer Phil Rosenthal and his writing team take audiences behind the scenes of one of the most beloved sitcoms in TV history. Along the way they describe in detail how the shows were written and characters developed, screen video clips of their home lives, and reveal how those real-life...

Rick Reilly

RICK REILLY, 50, has been voted National Sportswriter of the Year 11 times. He is the new back-page columnist for ESPN The Magazine, and a featured columnist for ESPN.com, as well an essayist for ESPN SportsCenter and ABC Sports...

Steve Bodow

Steve Bodow is Head Writer for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the acclaimed Comedy Central news parody. Since joining TDS in 2002, Steve has won four Emmys, two Television Critics Awards, and a Peabody. He was also a writer for the Daily Show's #1 best-selling America: The Book. As a journalist, Steve has written both humor and "straight" pieces on politics, media, business and culture...

Terence Winter

Emmy Award Winner Terence Winter is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire. On September 19, 2010, Boardwalk Empire 's premiere episode gained HBO's highest ratings for any premiere since 2004 and less than two days later the series was renewed for a second season. Before creating Boardwalk Empire, Terence was a writer and executive producer...

Tim  Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is an angel investor (StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, etc.) and author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been sold into 35 languages...

Zach Braff

ZACH BRAFF has distinguished himself from his contemporaries—not only as an actor, but as a writer and director. With his feature writing and directorial debut, GARDEN STATE, Braff revealed himself as a multi-talented filmmaker via all three capacities—acting, writing and directing. Garnering numerous awards, Braff received a coveted WGA nomination for "Best Original Screenplay," an...

Beau Willmon

BEAU WILLIMON is a playwright and screenwriter whose latest project, HOUSE OF CARDS, is breaking tradition and re-establishing what it means to produce a successful show. Set in Washington DC, HOUSE OF CARDS is described as a “wicked political drama that penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern American politics.” Starring Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey...

David Benioff

DAVID BENIOFF is a writer, producer and showrunner for the hit HBO series GAME OF THRONES. Along with D.B. Weiss, David co-created this sweeping, medieval fantasy series that interweaves several plotlines during the end of a decade long summer as an impending winter looms. The show has garnered multiple awards including Emmys and Golden Globes and has gained a global cult-like following...

Don Hahn

A creative executive with the perfect balance for both halves of his brain, DON HAHN speaks as the ultimate authority as an executive with a mind for business and a soul for art. Don produced the classic BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the first animated film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. His next film, THE LION KING, broke box-office...

Ryan Murphy

Aside from being one of the most provocative and original voices, RYAN MURPHY has also become one of the most respected television creators working in Hollywood today. After starting out as a journalist, Murphy moved into film and television, where he's worked as a producer, screenwriter and director. He launched his first program, Popular, in 1999, followed by Nip/Tuck in 2003. In 2009...