---
name: "David E. Kelley"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/david-e-kelley"
fi1m_id: "david-e-kelley"
imdb_id: "nm0005082"
tmdb_id: 59650
wikidata_id: "Q504720"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "4 April 1956"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 69
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-10-07T12:39:29.209216+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# David E. Kelley

## Identity

David E. Kelley

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/david-e-kelley
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** david-e-kelley
- **IMDb ID:** nm0005082
- **TMDB ID:** 59650
- **Wikidata ID:** Q504720
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Kelley, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q504720, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005082/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/59650

Writer and producer. Born 4 April 1956 in Waterville, Maine, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 4 April 1956, Waterville, Maine, USA
- **Active:** 1997–present
- **Also known as:** 데이비드 E. 켈리, ديفيد كيلي
- **Frequently works with:** [Adam Arkin](https://film.one/person/adam-arkin.md), [Arlene Sanford](https://film.one/person/arlene-sanford.md), [Bill D'Elia](https://film.one/person/bill-delia.md), [Dan Attias](https://film.one/person/dan-attias.md), [Jeannot Szwarc](https://film.one/person/jeannot-szwarc.md), [Jill Goldsmith](https://film.one/person/jill-goldsmith.md), [Lily Rabe](https://film.one/person/lily-rabe.md), [Mel Damski](https://film.one/person/mel-damski.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 69, as writer, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 63 (1), 2000s 76 (1), 2010s 78 (1), 2020s 66 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 69 to 64 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 6, Comedy 3, Crime 2, Mystery 1
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Kelley, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q504720, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005082/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/59650

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Big Little Lies*](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md) (78), [*The Undoing*](https://film.one/tv/the-undoing.md) (61), [*Love & Death*](https://film.one/tv/love-and-death.md) (56)
- **Disney+:** [*Boston Legal*](https://film.one/tv/boston-legal.md) (76), [*Ally McBeal*](https://film.one/tv/ally-mcbeal.md) (63)
- **Apple TV:** [*Margo's Got Money Troubles*](https://film.one/tv/margos-got-money-troubles.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on David E. Kelley

> For more than thirty years David E. Kelley has written flawed, talkative, likeable people and then made them stand up in court and deliver his opinions; we rate the people and could do without the speeches.

Somewhere in every David E. Kelley series a lawyer stops arguing the case and turns to the jury, and the jury is sitting where we are. In *Boston Legal* (2004) Alan Shore's closing arguments read like newspaper columns, opposing counsel is handed the weaker brief, and whatever was in that week's papers is entered into evidence. Kelley practised law in Boston before he wrote a line of television, and he has never lost the taste for the summation. It is what makes his programmes his, and it is the thing we like least about them.

He learned the ensemble on *L.A. Law* with Steven Bochco in the late 1980s, then set up on his own with *Picket Fences* (1992), small-town oddity and ethical debate in the same hour. In 1997 he launched both *Ally McBeal* and *The Practice*, one fantastical and inward, the other grounded, and wrote most of both himself, in longhand, on legal pads. *Boston Legal* (2004–2008) spun out of *The Practice* and stopped behaving like a spin-off almost at once. Then the turn: *Big Little Lies* (2017), *The Undoing* (2020) and *Margo's Got Money Troubles* (2026) are adaptations of novels, shorter, built on someone else's plot.

The people are what works. Kelley has said that "the starting point for each series is to find a character I love", and the love reaches the screen: Shore and Denny Crane with their cigars, Elle Fanning's Margo working out how to feed a child on OnlyFans. Each of them talks like nobody else on television. What does not work is the speech, and the itch to try a topical case whether or not the story wants one. By the second season of *Boston Legal* we had stopped listening to the closing arguments and were waiting for the balcony, and we felt faintly ungrateful about it, because the nerve of putting the death penalty in front of a comedy audience is real. The women in that series are written first as things for Alan or Denny to look at and only then as lawyers, and the order shows.

The adaptations have done him good. Rufi Thorpe's novel gives *Margo's Got Money Troubles* a story that never needs a courtroom, and its plain, unbothered interest in how sex work, money and family get in one another's way is the Kelley of *Picket Fences* with the soapbox taken away. It is our higher score of the two. Its heavier stretches still ask for more attention than they have earned, so the habit is only mostly cured. Give him a book, a director such as Bill D'Elia, who has directed and produced for him repeatedly, and an actor-producer such as Nicole Kidman, who has done three with him, and the speeches get shorter. Leave him alone with a legal pad and they come back.

## Biography

David E. Kelley is an American television writer and producer. Born on 4 April 1956 in Waterville, Maine, he practised law before moving into television in the mid-1980s.

He created the series *Ally McBeal* (1997–2002), *The Practice* (1997–2004) and *Boston Legal* (2004–2008). Other credits include writing *Big Little Lies* (2017), *The Undoing* (2020), *Nine Perfect Strangers* (2021), *Love & Death* (2023), *Presumed Innocent* (2024) and the screenplay for the film *Lake Placid* (1999). He has received multiple Primetime Emmy Awards.

Kelley is married to actress Michelle Pfeiffer. He created and wrote the 2026 Apple TV+ series *Margo's Got Money Troubles*, marking their first professional collaboration.

*Sources: imdb.com, usatoday.com, thewrap.com, deadline.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *Margo's Got Money Troubles* (2026), Fi1m 80, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/margos-got-money-troubles.md)
- *Love & Death* (2023), Fi1m 56, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/love-and-death.md)
- *The Undoing* (2020), Fi1m 61, Writer, Creator, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-undoing.md)
- *Big Little Lies* (2017), Fi1m 78, Story, Teleplay, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md)
- *Boston Legal* (2004), Fi1m 76, Story, Creator, Teleplay, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/boston-legal.md)
- *Ally McBeal* (1997), Fi1m 63, Creator, Teleplay, Writer, Executive Producer, Story — [page](https://film.one/tv/ally-mcbeal.md)

## Complete filmography (37)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Margo's Got Money Troubles* (2026), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/margos-got-money-troubles.md)
- *Presumed Innocent* (2024), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Creator
- *A Man in Full* (2024), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Love & Death* (2023), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/tv/love-and-death.md)
- *The Calling* (2022), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *The Lincoln Lawyer* (2022), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Anatomy of a Scandal* (2022), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.* (2021), series, Original Series Creator
- *Nine Perfect Strangers* (2021), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Big Shot* (2021), series, Executive Producer, Teleplay, Story, Creator
- *Big Sky* (2020), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *The Undoing* (2020), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-undoing.md)
- *Mr. Mercedes* (2017), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Big Little Lies* (2017), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md)
- *Goliath* (2016), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *The Crazy Ones* (2013), series, Writer, Creator
- *Monday Mornings* (2013), series, Creator
- *Harry's Law* (2011), series, Producer, Writer, Creator
- *The Wedding Bells* (2007), series, Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Boston Legal* (2004), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/boston-legal.md)
- *The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire* (2003), series, Producer, Creator
- *Girls Club* (2002), series, Producer, Creator
- *Boston Public* (2000), series, Writer, Producer, Teleplay, Executive Producer, Story, Creator
- *Mystery, Alaska* (1999), Writer, Producer
- *Snoops* (1999), series, Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Lake Placid* (1999), Producer, Screenplay
- *Ally McBeal* (1997), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/ally-mcbeal.md)
- *The Practice* (1997), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Story, Teleplay, Creator
- *To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday* (1996), Screenplay, Producer
- *Chicago Hope* (1994), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Picket Fences* (1992), series, Writer, Creator
- *Doogie Howser, M.D.* (1989), series, Writer, Creator
- *From the Hip* (1987), Story, Screenplay
- *L.A. Law* (1986), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay
- *Wonder Woman*, series, Producer, Teleplay, Creator
- *Legally Mad*, series, Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Myron Bolitar*, series, Executive Producer

## Gallery

- ![David E. Kelley](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-fea3fe7c3ca5.jpg) David E. Kelley — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/David_E._Kelley_May_2003_%289%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David E. Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel Ma (2003)](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-489082f95442.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David E. Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel Ma (2003) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%281%29.jpg/1280px-David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%281%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003)](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-dfcbad8133f9.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%282%29.jpg/1280px-David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003)](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-382717d382e6.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%283%29.jpg/1280px-David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%283%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003)](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-6f8ed6980c39.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%284%29.jpg/1280px-David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%284%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003)](https://film.one/media/person/22374/gallery-2fcc9ee669f3.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS David Kelley, Jeri Ryan and Loretta Devine at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 1 (2003) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%285%29.jpg/1280px-David_E._Kelley%2C_Jeri_Ryan_and_Loretta_Devine%2C_May_2003_%285%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 2 won

- International Emmy Founders Award 2024: International Emmy Founders Award (won)
- Edgar Awards 1990: Edgar Awards (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/david-e-kelley