Paul Attanasio


Paul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and film and television producer, who was an executive producer on the television series House. He received Academy Award nominations for Quiz Show and Donnie Brasco screenplays.

Early life

Paul Attanasio was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Connie, a real estate broker, and Joseph Attanasio, a commercial consultant. He grew up in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, and later in Tenafly, New Jersey, where he attended public high school. He is a 1981 graduate of Harvard College, where he lived in Currier House, and earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1984.

Career

Attanasio was a film critic for The Washington Post from 1984 to 1987. He started writing for television with the CBS sitcom Doctor Doctor and the NBC crime drama , for which he holds a 'Created by' credit.
In 1995 he won a BAFTA for his screenplay adaptation for the drama Quiz Show. He later wrote the screenplays for the thriller Disclosure, the gangster movie Donnie Brasco, the science fiction film Sphere, and the political thriller The Sum of All Fears. In 2000 he returned to television and started executive producing, in addition to writing, the medical drama Gideon's Crossing and the pilot for R.U.S.H. Along with David Shore, he is one of the creators of the TV series House, of which he was executive producer. In 2006 he wrote the screenplay for the dramatic film The Good German.
In 2017, it was confirmed that Attanasio will be the writer and executive producer on the new Amazon Video series Tong Wars.
He is a co-creator of the series Bull.
He is the writer/producer of the 2020 CBS police drama Tommy.

Personal life

Formerly married to Katie Jacobs, he is now married to Amanda Benefiel, an artist, and has three children, Annabelle, John, and Grace. He is the brother of Mark Attanasio, a Los Angeles investment manager who is the principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Attanasio's son John, aged 16 at the time, drove a Chevrolet Camaro his father bought for him on his 16th birthday, and was filmed in a road rage incident where he shouted homophobic abusive slurs at the other driver and claiming that his own vehicle was "a million dollar car". John's car was worth less than $60,000.

TV appearances

Attanasio was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In a 90-minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, he describes how he went from lambasting movies as a "snotty" Washington Post film critic to developing rewarding creative partnerships with Oscar-winning directors Robert Redford, Barry Levinson, and Steven Soderbergh.

Filmography

Writer