Eli Attie

Eli Attie is a writer, producer, and former political operative. He served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, and then as Vice President Al Gore's chief White House and campaign speechwriter through Gore's concession of the 2000 presidential election, which Attie and Gore wrote together.[1][2] Attie was a longtime writer on both the NBC-TV series The West Wing and the Fox-TV series House.

Early life and education

Attie grew up in New York City. His mother is artist Dotty Attie[3] and his father was photographer David Attie.[4] He is a graduate of Hunter College High School and Harvard College.

Career

After working in the real White House, Attie became a writer on the NBC-TV series The West Wing for most of its run, and served as a producer and supervising producer in the show's later seasons.[5] A number of that show's story lines came from Attie's own experiences in politics. In addition, according to David Remnick's biography of Barack Obama, "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama," and other news sources, Attie used then-State Senator Obama as a model for the character of Matt Santos, a presidential candidate played by actor Jimmy Smits in the final two seasons of The West Wing.[6][7] Together with John Wells, Attie was nominated for Writers Guild and Humanitas awards for the episode "Election Day: Part 2," in which Santos wins the presidency.

Attie was a writer and co-executive producer on House for the last five of its eight seasons, and was nominated for a Humanitas award for the series finale, "Everybody Dies," which he co-wrote with series creator David Shore. Attie's screenplay "Smile Relax Attack" was included on the Black List, an industry list of executives' favorite still-unproduced scripts.[8]

Attie has worked as a rock critic for The Washington Post, Slate, and other publications. Attie won ASCAP's Deems-Taylor award for pop music writing.[9]

Attie is a seven-time Emmy nominee and a three-time WGA award nominee; he shared an Emmy Award for "The West Wing Documentary Special."[10]

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Roger (20 November 2002). "Al Gore Has Stopped The Sighs". Jewish World Review.
  2. ↑ "Reading Aloud Podcast". 5 December 2014.
  3. ↑ Interview Magazine: "Ranger Games: Dotty x Eli Attie" By Eli Attie and Alexandria Symonds retrieved December 9, 2014
  4. ↑ Vulture: "On His 90th Birthday, Unseen Photos of Truman Capote in Brooklyn" By Christopher Bonanos September 30, 2014
  5. ↑ "Eli Attie on the Internet Movie Database".
  6. ↑ Smith, Ben (5 April 2010). "Imagining Obama On 'The West Wing'". Politico.
  7. ↑ Stelter, Brian (29 October 2008). "Following The Script: Obama, McCain and 'The West Wing'". New York Times.
  8. ↑ "The Black List: Full Roster". Deadline.
  9. ↑ "36th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Winners Announced". ASCAP.
  10. ↑ "Eli Attie on the Internet Movie Database.".