Biography for
Aaron Sorkin More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only a short time to realize that his true love, and his true talent, lay in writing. His first play, "Removing All Doubt", was not an immediate success, but his second play, "Hidden in This Picture", debuted in 1988 at the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar. A longer version of "Hidden in This Picture", called "Making Movies", opened at the Promenade Theater in 1990. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, Sorkin was about to break into the spotlight. In 1989, he received the prestigious Outer Critics Circle award as Outstanding American Playwright for the stage version of A Few Good Men (1992), which was later nominated for a Golden Globe. The idea for the plot of "A Few Good Men" came from a conversation with his older sister, Deborah. Deborah was a Navy Judge Advocate General lawyer sent to Guantanamo Bay on a case involving Marines accused of killing a fellow Marine. Deborah told Aaron of the case and he spent the next year and a half writing a Broadway play, which later led to the movie. Sorkin has gone on to write for many movies and TV shows. Besides A Few Good Men (1992), he has written The American President (1995) and Malice (1993), as well as cooperating on Enemy of the State (1998), The Rock (1996) and Excess Baggage (1997). In addition, he was invited by Steven Spielberg to "polish" the script of Schindler's List (1993). Sorkin's TV credits include the Golden Globe-nominated "The West Wing" (1999) and "Sports Night" (1998).

Spouse

Trade Mark

Appears as an extra in a bar scene in titles that he writes.

Rapid quick fire exchange of dialogue for characters

'Walk and talks' (or 'pedeconferencing') where two characters have a conversation while walking together.

Trivia

In July 2000, he signed a four-year deal with Warner Bros. TV for approximately $15 million. The deal marks the first time that he has signed an exclusive long-term production deal.

A judge sentenced him to a drug-diversion program as a result of his arrest at a California airport for carrying marijuana, rock cocaine and hallucenogenic mushrooms. [19 June 2001]

His daughter's name: Roxy, born November 17, 2000

Attended and Graduated from Syracuse Univeristy with a BFA in Musical Theatre.

Wrote a 1988 Rolling Stone Magazine article about the top acting schools in the U.S. One of the featured schools was the State University of New York at Purchase (S.U.N.Y. Purchase) where Janel Moloney ("Donna" on "The West Wing" (1999)) happened to be attending at the time.

Many of his works contain references to the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. In Malice (1993), the doctor played by Alec Baldwin boasts that he is "never, ever sick at sea", lyrics from "The HMS Pinafore". In "The West Wing" (1999), Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) says that he was recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert & Sullivan society, and many of the regular characters welcome Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) to her new office by decorating it with G&S posters and singing "He Is an Englishman", also from "Pinafore", to her. The second episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (2006) closes with the cast of the show-within-the-show singing a parody of "I Am the Very Model Of a Modern Major-General" from "The Pirates of Penzance". In "Charlie Wilson's War" he gives Gust a throwaway line of "...and I'm never, never sick at sea." which is a line from HMS Pinafore.

He is considered one of Scarsdale High School's "Distinguished Alumni." His picture hangs among the other alumni near the school's cafeteria.

His two political stories, The West Wing and The American President, both feature heroic Democratic presidents. Ironically, his first successful script, A Few Good Men, was based on a case tried by a Republican, David Iglesias, who would later gain fame as one of the U.S. Attorneys fired by the George W. Bush administration.

All three of his television shows feature a season finale episode entitled "What kind of day has it been?".

Personal Quotes

I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, "You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?" and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.

[speaking about freebased cocaine] I had found a drug I absolutely love and that gave me a real break from a certain nervous tension that I kind of carry with me moment to moment.

When things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it's [like] bad crack in the schoolyard.

When I am setting out to do something, I don't consider the state of the culture. I can't possibly conceive of what the most people are going to like. Honest to God, I write something that I like, that I think my friends would like and that I think my father would like, and I keep my fingers crossed that enough other people are going to like it that I can earn a living.

I am all for everyone having a voice, I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.

Where Are They Now

(June 2006) Working on a new show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (2006), set to premier on NBC in the fall.

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