---
name: "Tom Perrotta"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tom-perrotta"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "31 August 1961"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 86
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-17T22:24:35.447294+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."
---

# Tom Perrotta

Writer. Born 31 August 1961 in Newark, New Jersey, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 31 August 1961, Newark, New Jersey, USA
- **Active:** 1999–2014
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination
- **Average Fi1m score:** 86, as writer, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 86 (1), 2010s 87 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Perrotta, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2055564, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0674909/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17171

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Leftovers*](https://film.one/tv/the-leftovers.md) (87)

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

## Fi1m on Tom Perrotta

> Tom Perrotta writes about suburban people knocked sideways by something they did not ask for, and lets them explain themselves in plain words. On screen that has given us one sour comedy and one great drama, and his ear for excuses runs through both.

Several people narrate *Election* (1999), and each of them, handed the microphone, uses it to mount a defence and gives themselves away in the process. Jim's version of events is never the only one on offer. The excuses are funny because they sound usable; people who would consider themselves above this sort of behaviour could borrow them without alteration. That is Tom Perrotta's habit, on the page and on screen: put an ordinary person in an awkward spot and let them talk.

He was a novelist first. *Bad Haircut* (1994) and *The Wishbones* (1997) came before *Election* (1998), and it was Alexander Payne's film of that novel the following year that brought the wider attention. *Little Children* (2004) followed, and he co-wrote its screenplay with Todd Field. Then, in 2011, *The Leftovers*, a novel about a Rapture-like event, which he co-created as a series with Damon Lindelof (2014–2017). *Mrs. Fletcher* (2019) came after, again with Perrotta as writer and creator. The setting is nearly always a suburb and a middle-class household, and something arrives to upset it.

The something can be a school election or the end of the world, and he treats them alike. *The Leftovers* opens after two per cent of the world's population has vanished on a single afternoon, in a suburb, with a man who cannot sleep. Nobody will find out where the people went; the series says so early. What it wants to know is how you go on in a house where a chair is empty. That is the *Election* question with the stakes raised: not what happened, but what you tell yourself about it afterwards.

He has said: "I’m not a great writer of sentences. I have a good ear for dialogue, I know how to structure a story." We would not argue. The language is plain, and readers who want flourish have found it flat, but plainness is what lets the excuses in *Election* land, and it keeps *The Leftovers* honest when the material could easily have turned solemn. The first season of that series nearly lost us: ten episodes in a voice so low and grey that we came close to switching off. Then the second year arrived and it moved us more than we thought possible, largely through Carrie Coon, and the patience of the first stretch turned out to be the point.

The recurring complaint is that he is lightweight, or that his comedy is not as cruel as it promises to be. That is half right. His setups are satirical and his execution is not; the characters deepen as he writes them and the story stops sneering. Whether that is a fault depends on what you came for. Start with *Election*, which is sour enough for anyone. Then give *The Leftovers* its ten slow episodes, and do not expect either to tell you who is to blame.

## Biography

Tom Perrotta is an American novelist and screenwriter. His 1998 novel *Election* was adapted into a 1999 film directed by Alexander Payne. He co-created the HBO series *The Leftovers* (2014), based on his 2011 novel, with Damon Lindelof, serving as writer and executive producer.

Perrotta adapted his novel *Little Children* (2004) for the 2006 film, co-writing the screenplay with Todd Field and receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Other novels include *The Abstinence Teacher* (2007) and *Mrs. Fletcher* (2017), the latter adapted into an HBO series.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *The Leftovers* (2014), Fi1m 87, Teleplay, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-leftovers.md)
- *Election* (1999), Fi1m 86, Novel — [page](https://film.one/film/election.md)

## Complete filmography (5)

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

- *Mrs. Fletcher* (2019), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Novel, Creator
- *The Leftovers* (2014), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Teleplay, Creator — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-leftovers.md)
- *From Nothing, Something: A Documentary on the Creative Process* (2012), Acting
- *Little Children* (2006), Small Man, Screenplay, Novel
- *Election* (1999), Novel — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/election.md)

## Gallery

- ![Tom Perotta speaks at the 2026 Library of Congress National Book Festival, August 22. Photo by Kimberly Powell/For the Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and pu](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-6bef973ca3f5.jpg) Tom Perotta speaks at the 2026 Library of Congress National Book Festival, August 22. Photo by Kimberly Powell/For the Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and pu — Library of Congress Life, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/2026_Tom_Perrotta_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-2026_Tom_Perrotta_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016)](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-0c81e1f3c18f.jpg) This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%281%29.jpg/1280px-Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%281%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016)](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-567b1538875c.jpg) This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%282%29.jpg/1280px-Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016)](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-8bb1aeb141f8.jpg) This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%283%29.jpg/1280px-Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof%2C_May_2016_%283%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Tom Perrotta](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-45b2620eab82.jpg) Tom Perrotta — Image via TMDB
- ![This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016)](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-15d4c0c92d96.jpg) This photo includes Actors Justin Theroux and Ann Dowd, Executive Producer/Director Mimi Leder, Co-Creator/Executive Producer Tom Perrotta and Showrunner Damon  (2016) — (Photo/Sarah E. Freeman/Grady College, freemans@uga.edu in New York City, Georgia, on Saturday, May 21, 2016), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof_at_the_75th_Annual_Peabody_Awards_for_The_Leftovers.jpg/1280px-Justin_Theroux%2C_Ann_Dowd%2C_Mimi_Leder%2C_Tom_Perrotta_and_Damon_Lindelof_at_the_75th_Annual_Peabody_Awards_for_The_Leftovers.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Tom Perotta speaks at the 2026 Library of Congress National Book Festival, August 22. Photo by Kimberly Powell/For the Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and pu](https://film.one/media/person/88754/gallery-f8ad5d6ccdd7.jpg) Tom Perotta speaks at the 2026 Library of Congress National Book Festival, August 22. Photo by Kimberly Powell/For the Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and pu — Library of Congress Life, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Tom_Perrotta_%2855500962187%29.jpg/1280px-Tom_Perrotta_%2855500962187%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2007: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Little Children*

*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/tom-perrotta