Michael Patrick King

Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer/director Michael Patrick King entered production by way of acting, when he moved to Manhattan in the 1980s and attempted to make it as a thespian. Dissatisfied with pursuits in this sphere, King sought out an alternative: he discovered a flair for authoring and performing standup comedy routines and writing plays, and soon relocated to Southern California. In Los Angeles, King landed one of his first major jobs under the aegis of producer Diane English and associates, authoring innumerable episodes of the popular sitcom Murphy Brown (1988-1998); the success of those efforts, in turn, led to King's additional writing assignments on network situation comedies including Cybill and Will & Grace.

It was with King's work on the blockbuster HBO sitcom Sex and the City (1998-2004), however, that he fully broke through to acclaim as one of Hollywood's most sought-after scribes. In time, he ascended to a post as the program's head writer and assumed production duties as well, executive-producing the series for HBO. Accordingly, the top-tiered cable network and New Line Cinema tapped King to script, co-produce, and direct the big-screen filmization of Sex and the City in 2008. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide