Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin is a screenwriter, producer and playwright. Sorkin created the Emmy Award-winning The West Wing and the short-lived 2006 series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/

Sorkin's big break came when his stage play A Few Good Men caught Hollywood's attention. Sorkin was hired to adapt his play for the screen and followed it with screenplays for Malice and An American President.

In 1998, Sorkin created the television series Sports Night for ABC. Sports Night lasted two seasons. His next television outing was longer lasting, the critically-acclaimed The West Wing. Sorkin stayed with The West Wing for four of its seven seasons.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/bio

Next up was the 2006 drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the screenplay for Charlie Wilson's War and Broadway play The Farnsworth Invention about the invention of television. Sorkin's writing includes rapid-fire dialogue delivered by characters as they "walk and talk."http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/

Sorkin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from Syracuse University. Before attending the school, he was also active in drama and theater clubs in high school. He began writing and his second play, Hidden in This Picture, which debuted in 1988. In 1989, he received an Outer Critics Circle award for A Few Good Men, which was made into a movie in 1992.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/bio Other award winning works that have been written by Sorkin include Charlie Wilson's War and The West Wing.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/awards In total, he has been nominated for 28 different awards and won 18 times. His nominations include four Golden Globe Awards nominations, including nominations for The Social Network in 2010.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/

1992: A Few Good Men (play/screenplay)

1993: Malice (screenplay)

The American President

1998-2000: Sports Night (TV show

1998-2006: The West Wing (TV show)

2006-2007: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2007: Charlie Wilson's War

2010: The Social Network

2011: Moneyball (post-production)

2012: Follies (pre-production)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/

"Our responsibility is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. That said, there is tremendous drama to be gotten from the great, what you would say, heavy issues. There's also drama to be gotten from issues that most people would consider very dry and wouldn't want to pay any attention to." — Interview with PBShttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/west_wing/sorkin.html

"The rules are all in a sixty-four-page pamphlet by Aristotle called Poetics. It was written almost three thousand years ago, but I promise you, if something is wrong with what you're writing, you've probably broken one of Aristotle's rules." — Interview with Esquire Magazinehttp://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/meaning-of-life-2011/aaron-sorkin-interview-0111

"I like dialogue that sounds like something. I wanted to start out at 100 miles an hour in the middle of a conversation so that the audience would have to run a bit suddenly just to keep up with us." — Interview with Screencrave.com about The Social networkhttp://screencrave.com/2010-09-28/interview-aaron-sorkin-for-the-social-Network/

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• June 9th, 1961: Born

• 1992: A Few Good Men

• 1993: Malice

• 1995: The American President

• 1998-2000: Sports Night

• 1999-2006: The West Wing

• 2006-2007: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

• 2007: Charlie Wilson's War