Paul Attanasio Biography

Paul Albert Attanasio (born November 14, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film and television producer, who was an executive producer on the television series House.

Paul Attanasio was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Connie, a real estate broker, and Joseph Attanasio, a commercial consultant. He grew up in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, and later in Tenafly, New Jersey, where he attended public high school. He is a 1981 graduate of Harvard College, where he lived in Currier House, and earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1984. His wife Katie Jacobs is his producing partner; they have three children, Annabelle, John, and Grace. He is the brother of Mark Attanasio, a Los Angeles investment manager who is the principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.

He was a film critic for The Washington Post from 1984 to 1987. He started writing for television with the CBS sitcom Doctor Doctor and the NBC crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, which he created. In 1994 he wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation for the drama Quiz Show. He would later write the screenplays for the thriller Disclosure, the gangster movie Donnie Brasco, the science fiction film Sphere, and the political thriller The Sum of All Fears. In 2000 he returned to television and started executive producing, in addition to writing, the medical drama Gideon's Crossing and the pilot for R.U.S.H. Along with David Shore, he is one of the creators of the TV series House, of which he was executive producer. In 2006 he wrote the screenplay for the dramatic film The Good German. His current projects include the upcoming Showtime series The Vatican (in partnership with Ridley Scott) and a reboot of the Scarface franchise.

In his twenty-five years in Hollywood, he has been nominated for every major award in film and television, including the Academy Award, the BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America Award, the Emmy, the Peabody Award, and the Golden Globe.

TV appearances

Attanasio was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In a 90-minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, he describes how he went from lambasting movies as a "snotty" Washington Post film critic to developing rewarding creative partnerships with Oscar-winning directors Robert Redford, Barry Levinson, and Steven Soderbergh.