78 Facts About Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin was born on June 9,1961 and is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director.

Aaron Sorkin has earned numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes.

Aaron Sorkin rose to prominence as a writer-creator and showrunner of the television series Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and The Newsroom.

Aaron Sorkin is known for his work on Broadway including the plays A Few Good Men, The Farnsworth Invention, and To Kill a Mockingbird as well as the revival of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the film screenplays for A Few Good Men, The American President, and several biopics including Charlie Wilson's War, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs.

Aaron Sorkin made his directorial film debut with Molly's Game, followed by The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Being the Ricardos.

Aaron Sorkin was born in Manhattan, New York City, to a Jewish family, and was raised in the New York suburb of Scarsdale.

Aaron Sorkin attended Scarsdale High School where he became involved in the drama and theatre club.

Aaron Sorkin moved to New York City where he spent much of the 1980s as a struggling, sporadically-employed actor who worked odd jobs, such as delivering singing telegrams, driving a limousine, touring Alabama with the children's theatre company Traveling Playhouse, handing out fliers promoting a hunting-and-fishing show, and bartending at Broadway's Palace Theatre.

Aaron Sorkin continued writing and eventually put together his first play, Removing All Doubt, which he sent to his former theatre teacher, Arthur Storch, who was impressed.

Producer John A McQuiggan saw the production of Hidden in This Picture and commissioned Sorkin to turn the one-act into a full-length play called Making Movies.

Aaron Sorkin was inspired to write his next play, a courtroom drama called A Few Good Men, from a phone conversation with his sister Deborah, who had graduated from Boston University Law School and signed up for a three-year stint with the US Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Aaron Sorkin took that information and wrote much of his story on cocktail napkins while bartending at the Palace Theatre.

In 1988, Aaron Sorkin sold the film rights for A Few Good Men to producer David Brown before it premiered, in a deal that was reportedly "well into six figures".

Aaron Sorkin worked under contract for Castle Rock Entertainment, where he befriended colleagues William Goldman and Rob Reiner, and met his future wife Julia Bingham, who was one of Castle Rock's business affairs lawyers.

Aaron Sorkin wrote several drafts of the script for A Few Good Men in his Manhattan apartment, learning the craft from a book about screenplay format.

Aaron Sorkin then spent several months at the Los Angeles offices of Castle Rock, working on the script with director Rob Reiner.

Goldman oversaw the project as creative consultant while Aaron Sorkin wrote the first two drafts.

When production on A Few Good Men was completed, Aaron Sorkin resumed working on Malice right through the final shooting script.

Aaron Sorkin wrote some quips for Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage in 1996's The Rock.

Aaron Sorkin worked on Excess Baggage, a 1997 comedy about a girl who stages her own kidnapping to get her father's attention, and rewrote some of Will Smith's scenes in Enemy of the State.

Aaron Sorkin collaborated with Warren Beatty on several scripts, one of which was 1998's Bulworth.

Beatty, known for occasionally personally financing his film projects through pre-production, hired Aaron Sorkin to rewrite a script titled Ocean of Storms which never went into production.

At one point, Aaron Sorkin sued Beatty for proper compensation for his work on the Ocean of Storms script; once the matter was settled, he resumed working on the script.

Aaron Sorkin conceived the idea to write about the behind-the-scenes happenings on a sports show while residing at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles writing the screenplay for The American President.

Aaron Sorkin fought with ABC during the first season over the use of a laugh track and a live studio audience.

Aaron Sorkin was triumphant in the second season when ABC agreed to his demands, unburdening the crew of the difficulties of staging a scene for a live audience and leaving the cast with more time to rehearse.

Aaron Sorkin entertained offers to continue the show on other television channels, but declined all the offers because they were dependent on his involvement and he was already working on The West Wing.

Aaron Sorkin conceived the political drama The West Wing in 1997 when he went unprepared to a lunch with producer John Wells; in a panic he pitched to Wells a series centered on the senior staff of the White House, using leftover ideas from his script for The American President.

Aaron Sorkin told Wells about his visits to the White House while doing research for The American President, and they found themselves discussing public service and the passion of the people who serve.

Cleveland and Aaron Sorkin won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Drama at the 53rd Writer Guild of America Awards for "In Excelsis Deo".

In 2001, after completing the second season of The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin had a drug relapse, and was arrested at Hollywood Burbank Airport for possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, and crack cocaine.

Aaron Sorkin was ordered by a court to attend a drug diversion program.

In 2002, Sorkin criticized NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's television special about a day in the life of a president, "The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing", comparing it to the act of sending a valentine to President George W Bush instead of real news reporting.

Aaron Sorkin wrote 87 screenplays for The West Wing, which is nearly every episode during the show's first four Emmy-winning seasons.

In 2005, Aaron Sorkin returned to theatre; he revised his play A Few Good Men for a production at London's West End.

Aaron Sorkin told The Charlie Rose Show that he was developing a television series based on a late-night sketch comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live.

Aaron Sorkin described the show as having "autobiographical elements" to it and "characters that are based on actual people" but said that it departs from those beginnings to look at the backstage maneuverings at a late night sketch comedy show.

In January 2007, Aaron Sorkin spoke out against the press for reporting heavily on the low ratings, and for using blogs and unemployed comedy writers as sources.

Shortly, Aaron Sorkin was contacted by Jocelyn Clarke of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, requesting he write a play for them, a commission which he accepted.

Aaron Sorkin decided to rewrite The Farnsworth Invention as a play.

Aaron Sorkin delivered a first draft of the play to the Abbey Theatre in early 2005, and a production was planned for 2007 with La Jolla Playhouse deciding to stage a workshop production of the play in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre.

In 2007, Aaron Sorkin was commissioned by Universal Pictures to adapt George Crile's non-fiction book Charlie Wilson's War for Tom Hanks' production company Playtone.

In 2011, Aaron Sorkin played himself on the series 30 Rock, episode "Plan B", where he did a "walk and talk" with Liz Lemon played by Tina Fey.

Aaron Sorkin spent time shadowing Hardball with Chris Matthews, as well as other programs on Fox News and CNN.

The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin was based on Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, and starred Michael Fassbender as Jobs, Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak.

Aaron Sorkin won a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, although some journalists were surprised that he did not receive an Academy Award nomination in the same category.

In February 2016, it was announced that Aaron Sorkin would adapt Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for the stage reuniting with Jeff Daniels who would portray Atticus Finch.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the script for it, which starred Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba.

Production began in 2016 and the film was released in December 2017 to mostly positive reviews; Aaron Sorkin received his third Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Aaron Sorkin told Vanity Fair in July 2020 that Steven Spielberg offered him a job in 2006 about "a movie about the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and the trial that followed".

The first was The Trial of the Chicago 7, which Aaron Sorkin was already developing with Spielberg, Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.

At the 78th Golden Globes, Aaron Sorkin won Best Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Director.

In September 2015, Entertainment Weekly reported that Aaron Sorkin was writing a biopic that will focus on the twenty-year marriage of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and their work on a comedy series, I Love Lucy.

In March 2007, it was reported that Aaron Sorkin had signed on to write a musical adaptation of the hit 2002 record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by psychedelic-rock band The Flaming Lips, collaborating with director Des McAnuff who had been developing the project.

In 2010, Aaron Sorkin reportedly obtained the film rights to Andrew Young's book The Politician, and announced that he would make his debut as a film director while adapting the book for the screen.

In November 2010, it was reported that Aaron Sorkin will write a musical based on the life of Houdini, with music by Danny Elfman.

In January 2012, Stephen Schwartz was reported to be writing the music and lyrics, with Aaron Sorkin making his debut as a librettist.

Aaron Sorkin has written for the theater, film, and television, and in each medium his level of collaboration with other creators has varied.

Aaron Sorkin began in theater, which involved a largely solitary writing process, then moved into film, where he collaborated with director Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman, and eventually worked in television, where he collaborated very closely with director Thomas Schlamme for nearly a decade on the shows Sports Night, The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; he now moves between all three media.

Aaron Sorkin had a habit of chain smoking while he spent long hours plotting out scripts in his office, though he quit smoking after having a stroke in 2022.

Aaron Sorkin describes his writing process as physical because he will often stand up and speak the dialogue he is developing.

De Jonge reported that ex-writers of The West Wing have claimed that "even by the spotlight-hogging standards of Hollywood, Aaron Sorkin has been exceptionally ungenerous in his sharing of writing credit".

Aaron Sorkin married Julia Bingham in 1996 and divorced in 2005, with his workaholic habits and drug abuse reported to be a partial cause.

Aaron Sorkin dated Kristin Chenoweth, who played Annabeth Schott on The West Wing, for several years.

Aaron Sorkin has reportedly dated columnist Maureen Dowd and actress Kristin Davis.

In 2016, after President Donald Trump won the election, Aaron Sorkin wrote an open letter to his daughter Roxy and her mother Julia.

Aaron Sorkin said cocaine gave him relief from certain nervous tensions that occur on a regular basis.

However, on April 15,2001, Aaron Sorkin was arrested when security guards at Hollywood Burbank Airport found that he was in possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, crack cocaine, and a metal crack pipe.

Aaron Sorkin was court-ordered to a drug diversion program, while still working on The West Wing.

In November 2022, Aaron Sorkin had a stroke which was caused by hypertension.

Aaron Sorkin later called it "a loud wake-up call" to improve his health, and said he quit smoking, changed his diet, and began exercising daily as a result.

Aaron Sorkin has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following films:.

Aaron Sorkin has been nominated for ten Golden Globe Awards, winning three for Best Screenplay for: The Social Network, Steve Jobs, and The Trial of the Chicago Seven.

Aaron Sorkin has received five British Academy Film Awards nominations, winning one for The Social Network.

Aaron Sorkin has received fourteen Writers Guild of America Award nominations winning twice for The West Wing, and The Social Network.

Aaron Sorkin has received seven Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations winning consecutively for Best Screenplay for The Social Network and Moneyball.

Aaron Sorkin won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for The West Wing episode: "In Excelsis Deo" in 2000.