Biography
Steven Zaillian is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. Born on 30 January 1953 in Fresno, California, he graduated from San Francisco State University in 1975 with a degree in cinema after attending Sonoma State University. He began his career as a film editor before turning to screenwriting.
Zaillian wrote the screenplays for Awakenings (1990) and Schindler's List (1993), for which he received an Academy Award. He provided the story for Mission: Impossible (1996). Other credits include Gangs of New York (2002), American Gangster (2007), Moneyball (2011) and The Irishman (2019). He has also directed films such as Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) and A Civil Action (1998), and created television series including The Night Of (2016) and Ripley (2024).
