- Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana (born on
September 12 1951 inBuffalo, New York ) is an Americanwriter and producerTV Career
Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as "Oz" (which he also created), "The Jury", "The Beat", "
The Bedford Diaries ", "" and "St. Elsewhere ".Fontana was born on the west side of
Buffalo, New York , and is the fourth of five children in an Italian-American family; he is a cousin of actressPatti LuPone . He attendedCathedral School ,Canisius High School , andBuffalo State College . He worked at theStudio Arena Theater in Buffalo in various capacities before moving to New York City in 1973. Fontana began writing plays when he was about 9 years old. The early efforts were recorded into a reel-to-reel tape recorder with the neighbor kids as performers. At least one of his plays was produced when he was a student at Buffalo State. His college stage debut as an actor was in a production ofGeorge Bernard Shaw 's "Saint Joan", directed by his frequent mentor,Warren Enters . Fontana's efforts as a playwright never proved financially successful. It was while working at theWilliamstown Theater Festival in the early 1980s, that he was offered the opportunity to write for television — the offer coming fromBruce Paltrow who was launching a series calledSt. Elsewhere on NBC.Fontana has written and produced such ground breaking television series as "
St. Elsewhere ", "", and Oz, for which he has received, among others, threeEmmy Awards , fourPeabody Awards , three Writers’ Guild Awards, four Television Critics Association Awards, the Cable Ace Award, theHumanitas Prize , anEdgar Award , and the first prize at theCinéma Tout Ecran Festival in Switzerland.Fontana wrote the HBO film "
Strip Search ", directed bySidney Lumet , as well as contributing two pieces to the September 11th special, "". He was theexecutive producer of "American Tragedy " for CBS, "Shot in the Heart " forHBO Films , the independent film "Jean " and the documentary "The Press Secretary " forPBS .Personal Life
Fontana lives in New York City's West Village in a building that was formerly a branch of the New York Public Library. The book-lined, two-story main reading room is now a striking living room where he is generous enough to host fund-raisers for arts and civil rights organizations.
Articles
Fontana has written articles for such periodicals as "
The New York Times ", "TV Guide " and "Esquire" and has taught at Columbia, Syracuse, Rutgers and the State University College at Buffalo, his alma mater, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.Plays
Fontana has had numerous plays produced in New York City, where he lives, and at San Francisco’s
American Conservatory Theatre , the CincinnatiPlayhouse in the Park , the Buffalo Studio Arena Theatre,Williamstown Theatre Festival andMcCarter Theatre Company .Membership
He is a member of the
Dramatists Guild , theProducers Guild of America , and theWGA , East, from which he received theEvelyn F. Burkey Award for lifetime achievement. [Source of this paragraph: Biography published in awards program.] Fontana served as vice-president of theWriters Guild of America, East from 2005-2007. He is currently President of the WGAE Foundation and serves on the boards of The Acting Company, theWilliamstown Theatre Festival , DEAL, The New York City Police Museum, Stockings With Care, among others.Detective Joe Fontana,
Dennis Farina 's character on "Law & Order ", was named for Tom Fontana, who is a close friend of "Law & Order " creatorDick Wolf .External links
* [http://www.tomfontana.com/ Official Website]
*
* [http://nymag.com/nymag/features/9190/ New York Magazine Tom Fontana profile and "The Jury" preview]
* [http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6596043.html] (about theManhunt miniseries )
* [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3iac830de737fb3212160e5db7adf86edb]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.