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Stephen Gaghan
File:Stephen Gaghan (cropped).jpg
Gaghan at the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival
Born (1965-05-06) May 6, 1965 (age 58)
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Alma materBabson College (B.A.)
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter
Spouse(s)
Minnie Mortimer
(m. after 2007)
Children4

Template:Wikidata image

Stephen Gaghan (Template:IPAc-en;[1] born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director.[2] He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic,[2] based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay,[3] as well as Syriana which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the thriller Abandon and the family film Dolittle, and directed the drama Gold.

Childhood and education[]

Gaghan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of the former Elizabeth Jane Whorton and her first husband, Stephen Gaghan (d. 1980), and a stepson of Tom Haag. Gaghan attended Kentucky Country Day School, a college preparatory school in Louisville.[Citation needed] He was an All-State soccer player where he held the assist record at the school for nearly three decades.[Citation needed] He is a grandson of Jerry Gaghan, a newspaper columnist and drama critic for Variety and the Philadelphia Daily News.[4] Gaghan wrote in a 2001 article in Newsweek, "I also wanted to be a writer, like my grandfather, who carried a card in his wallet that read, "If you find me, call my son [my father] at this number..."[5]

In his final days of high school before graduation, Gaghan was expelled for driving a go-cart through the halls of the school. During the release of Traffic, a critic commented on one of the teen characters in the movie who is a drug addict and a straight-A student, calling it unrealistic, which Gaghan defended by stating that he had straight A's while he was addicted to drugs and alcohol. As Gaghan wrote in an article published in Newsweek in February 2001, "I wasn't much different from my peers, except where they could stop drinking after three or six or 10 drinks, I couldn't stop and wouldn't stop until I had progressed through marijuana, cocaine, heroin and, finally, crack and freebase--which seem for so many people to be the last stop on the elevator." Gaghan has stated that he began dealing with his addictions in 1997. "Over one long, five-day weekend, I had three separate heroin dealers get arrested," he said. "My dealer, my backup dealer and my backup-backup dealer. I was left alone, and I just hit that place, that total incomprehensible demoralization. That was the end of it; up five days straight, locked in the bathroom, convinced there was nowhere else to go, I had to kill myself, I'm going to kill myself. I just couldn't take another minute of it."[6]

He attended the University of Kentucky and was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.[7] He was a student on the Fall 1986 Voyage of the "Semester at Sea" Study Abroad Program where he attended classes on board the SS Universe and sailed around the world. He eventually graduated from Babson College in 1988 with a degree in screenwriting.[8][9] He also started a catalog company, Fallen Empire Inc., which he hoped would support his writing career.[Citation needed]

Career[]

File:Anna Deavere Smith Sundance 2012(1) (cropped).jpg

Gaghan and Anna Deavere Smith at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival

Gaghan wrote the screenplay for Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000. In addition to Traffic, Gaghan also directed and wrote the screenplays for Syriana (2005) and Abandon (2002), the former receiving comparable critical acclaim to Traffic, while the latter turned out to be a total fiasco. Other writing credits include Rules of Engagement (2000), Havoc (2005), and The Alamo (2004), as well as a handful of episodes of various television series. Gaghan turned down the chance to adapt Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code.

In his television writing career, he won an Emmy Award for co-writing a NYPD Blue episode entitled Where's Swaldo, in 1997. In addition to NYPD Blue, he has also written for The Practice and New York Undercover.

His next project is a film adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He has also been hired by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay of the Dead Spy Running franchise written by author Jon Stock.[10] He is also set to direct crime thriller Candy Store.[11]

On January 19, 2017, it was announced that Ubisoft had hired Gaghan to direct the film adaptation of the popular video game The Division, but it was announced later that Gaghan was no longer attached to the project.[12][13]

Personal life[]

Gaghan has a son, Gardner, (b. 1999) and a daughter, Elizabeth, who goes by the nickname of Betsy, (b. 2001) from a previous relationship with actress Michael McCraine, whom he met in 1997 while at a recovery meeting.[14] On May 19, 2007, Gaghan married Marion "Minnie" Mortimer.[14] Together they have a daughter, Tuesday, (b. February 2, 2009),[15] and a son, Johnny (b. May 20, 2014).[16]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Year Film Director Writer Notes
2000 Rules of Engagement No Yes
Traffic No Yes Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
Edgar Award for Motion Picture Screenplay
Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nominated – National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
2002 Abandon Yes Yes
2004 The Alamo No Yes
2005 Havoc No Yes
Syriana Yes Yes Edgar Award for Motion Picture Screenplay
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nominated – Robert Award for Best American Film
2016 Gold Yes No Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (For the song "Gold")
2020 Dolittle Yes Yes

Television[]

Year Film Writer Producer Notes
1995 New York Undercover Yes No Episode "CAT"
1995–1996 American Gothic Yes No 7 episodes
1996 NYPD Blue Yes No Episode "Where's 'Swaldo"
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
1997 The Practice Yes No Episodes "First Degree: Part 1" and "Sex, Lies, and Monkeys: Part 2"
Sleepwalkers Yes Yes Episode "Night Terrors"
2011 Metro Yes No TV movie

Acting roles[]

Year Film Role Notes
2004 Alfie Adam
2008 Entourage Himself Episode "Welcome to the Jungle"

Video Game[]

  • Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)

Personal appearances[]

  • Entourage
  • The Henry Rollins Show
  • Film '72
  • Sunday Morning Shootout
  • The Charlie Rose Show
  • The Big Story
  • HBO First Look
  • Hollywood High (2003)
  • 73rd Academy Awards
  • Inside Traffic: The Making of Traffic

References[]

  1. Say How: G. National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. Retrieved on December 2, 2019.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Stephen Gaghan. The New York Times.
  3. Gaghan, Stephen (June 24, 2013). How One Writer Turned a Love for Writing Into an Oscar- and Emmy-Award Winning Career. Indiewire.
  4. George Skinner, a Broadcast Pioneer. Broadcast Pioneers.
  5. Gaghan, Stephen. "The Enemy is Every One of Us", Newsweek. 
  6. Lyman, Rick (February 5, 2001). The Screenwriter for 'Traffic' Says He Drew on His Past of Drug Use. The New York Times.
  7. Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. Oudelts.chapterspot.com.
  8. Babson at the movies. Babson Magazine.
  9. Notable Alumni (en). Babson College.
  10. "Stephen Gaghan set to adapt 'Dead Spy'", The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-02-19. 
  11. "Jason Clarke And Omar Sy To Star In Stephen Gaghan Thriller 'Candy Store'", 4 April 2013. Retrieved on 15 July 2013. 
  12. Kroll, Justin (2018-04-19). 'Deadpool 2's' David Leitch to Direct Jessica Chastain, Jake Gyllenhaal in 'The Division' (EXCLUSIVE) (en).
  13. Kroll, Justin (January 19, 2017). Stephen Gaghan to Direct 'The Division' Movie Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain (EXCLUSIVE). Variety.
  14. 14.0 14.1 L. Hamilton, William (May 27, 2007). Stephen Gaghan and Minnie Mortimer. The New York Times.
  15. Minnie Mortimer. Minnie Mortimer. Guest of a Guest.
  16. Colleen Crivello. Mom Crush: Minnie Mortimer Gaghan. minimode. Retrieved on October 16, 2016.

External links[]

v - e - dFilms directed by Stephen Gaghan
Abandon (2002) • Syriana (2005) • Gold (2016) • Dolittle (2020) • Famous 5 (2021)
v - e - dAwards for Stephen Gaghan

Template:AcademyAwardBestAdaptedScreenplay 1981–2000 Template:BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 2000–2019 Template:Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Template:EmmyAward DramaWriting 1990s Template:GoldenGlobeBestScreenplayMotionPicture 1981–2000 Template:Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

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