Steven Zaillian

 ( 1953 Births ) 

Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an Armenian-American screenwriter, film director and producer. He won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a WGA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for his screenplay Schindler's List (1993) and has earned Academy Awards nominations for the films Awakenings, Gangs of New York, Moneyball and The Irishman. He was presented with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2009 Austin Film Festival and the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America in 2011. Zaillian is the founder of Film Rites, a film production company.

He also created, wrote and directed the limited series The Night Of (2016) and Ripley (2024), the latter for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Peabody Awards.

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Early life and education Steven Zaillian was born in Fresno, California, the son of Jim Zaillian, a radio news reporter. Zaillian is of Armenian descent. He attended Sonoma State University, graduated from San Francisco State University in 1975 with a degree in Cinema.

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Personal life He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Elizabeth Zaillian; they have two sons together.

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Career Steven Zaillian is known for writing screenplays that often deal with tragedy and drama. Zaillian has written screenplays for many notable films. Zaillian wrote the screenplay for the 1990 film Awakenings. His most notable work is the 1993 screenplay for the film Schindler's List, for which he won an Academy Award. The Schindler’s List screenplay was voted the 49th best screenplay of all time by the Writers Guild of America West, the 32nd best of all time by IMDb, and the 49th best by filmsite.org. Zaillian directed and wrote the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer, for which he earned critical and commercial acclaim. Zaillian also wrote and directed the 1998 film A Civil Action and wrote the screenplays for the films Gangs of New York in 2002, and American Gangster in 2007. In 2007, in partnership with Mandate Pictures, he signed a deal with Columbia Pictures.. Zaillian co-wrote the screenplay for Moneyball in 2011 with Aaron Sorkin. Zaillian also wrote the screenplay for the 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. His most recent work includes creating, directing, writing, and producing the 2016 Emmy-winning HBO miniseries The Night Of and writing the screenplay for the 2019 Netflix film The Irishman.

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Filmography

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Film Awakenings

1993	Schindler's List
	Searching for Bobby Fischer
	Jack the Bear
1994	Clear and Present Danger
1996
1998
2001	Hannibal
2002	Gangs of New York
2005
2006	All the King's Men
2007	American Gangster
2011	Moneyball
2014
2018	Red Sparrow
2019	The Irishman
2021	Those Who Wish Me Dead

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Television

2016	The Night Of
2024	Ripley

Executive producer only

• Welcome to the Rileys (2010)
• The Cold Light of Day (2012)
• The Current War (2017)
• My Dinner with Hervé (2018)

Editor

• Breaker! Breaker! (1977)
• Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
• Starhops (1978)

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Awards and nominations

2019	Best Screenplay	The Irishman
1993	Best Adapted Screenplay	Schindler's List
2002	Best Original Screenplay	Gangs of New York
2011	Best Adapted Screenplay	Moneyball
2019	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Irishman
2002	Best Original Screenplay	Gangs of New York
2007	Best Original Screenplay	American Gangster
2011	Best Adapted Screenplay	Moneyball
2019	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Irishman
2019	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Irishman
2024	Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film	Ripley
2011	Best Screenplay	Moneyball
2019	Best Screenplay	The Irishman
Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series or Movie	The Night Of (episode: "The Beach")
Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie	The Night Of (episode: "The Call of the Wild")
2024	Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series	Ripley
Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
1993	Best Adapted Screenplay	Schindler's List
1998	Best Adapted Screenplay	A Civil Action
2002	Best Original Screenplay	Gangs of New York
2011	Best Adapted Screenplay	Moneyball
Best Adapted Screenplay	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2017		The Night Of
2019	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Irishman

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External links

• Writings at One for the Table

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