Jon Robin Baitz

Biography: A bright, sensitive writer and sometime actor, Baitz was raised in the cosmopolitan areas of Brazil, South Africa and Southern California. After tackling various low-level entertainment jobs, he penned his first play, Mizlansky/Zilinsky, about a bookstore clerk; many of his subsequent plays would also feature literary types. In 1990, he wrote and directed his first television script, Three Hotels, for PBS' American Playhouse, which snagged him a Humanitas Prize. A few years later, Baitz reworked the piece for stage, where it was helmed by his then-boyfriend, Tony-winning director Joe Mantello. Throughout the '90s, Baitz penned a number of critically acclaimed off-Broadway plays that invariably focused on dysfunctional family dynamics, including The Substance of Fire, which was adapted into a 1996 film, and the semi-autobiographical A Fair Country, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In the '00s, Baitz began writing sporadically for television, authoring scripts forA bright, sensitive writer and sometime actor, Baitz was raised in the cosmopolitan areas of Brazil, South Africa and Southern California. After tackling various low-level entertainment jobs, he penned his first play, Mizlansky/Zilinsky, about a bookstore clerk; many of his subsequent plays would also feature literary types. In 1990, he wrote and directed his first television script, Three Hotels, for PBS' American Playhouse, which snagged him a Humanitas Prize. A few years later, Baitz reworked the piece for stage, where it was helmed by his then-boyfriend, Tony-winning director Joe Mantello. Throughout the '90s, Baitz penned a number of critically acclaimed off-Broadway plays that invariably focused on dysfunctional family dynamics, including The Substance of Fire, which was adapted into a 1996 film, and the semi-autobiographical A Fair Country, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In the '00s, Baitz began writing sporadically for television, authoring scripts for some of the small screen's most intellectual series, including The West Wing and Alias. Brothers & Sisters, a multilayered family drama with political overtones that premiered in 2006, was the first series he created for TV. Named the artist-in-residence at New York's New School for Drama for the 2009-10 academic year, Baitz returned his focus to the theater in 2010, crafting the family-themed piece Love & Mercy and signing on to write a play about colorful Hollywood producer Robert Evans.… Expand