Stephen Gaghan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Gaghan at the 2014San Francisco International Film Festival | |
| Born | (1965-05-06)May 6, 1965 (age 60)[1] Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.[1] |
| Alma mater | Babson College (B.A.) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,screenwriter |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
Stephen Gaghan (/ˈɡeɪɡən/GAY-gən;[2] born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director.[3] He is noted for writing the screenplay forSteven Soderbergh's filmTraffic,[3] based on aChannel 4 series, for which he won theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay,[4] as well asSyriana which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the thrillerAbandon and the family filmDolittle, and directed the dramaGold.
Gaghan was born inLouisville, Kentucky, the son of the former Elizabeth Jane Whorton and her first husband, Stephen Gaghan (d. 1980), and a stepson of Tom Haag. He is a grandson of Jerry Gaghan, a newspaper columnist and drama critic forVariety and thePhiladelphia Daily News.[5] Gaghan wrote in a 2001 article inNewsweek, "I also wanted to be a writer, like my grandfather, who carried a card in his wallet that read, "If you find me, call my son [my father] at this number..."[6]
In his final days of high school before graduation, Gaghan was expelled for driving ago-cart through the halls of the school. During the release ofTraffic, a critic commented on one of the teen characters in the movie who is a drug addict and a straight-A student, calling it unrealistic, which Gaghan defended by stating that he had straight A's while he was addicted to drugs and alcohol. As Gaghan wrote in an article published inNewsweek in February 2001, "I wasn't much different from my peers, except where they could stop drinking after three or six or 10 drinks, I couldn't stop and wouldn't stop until I had progressed through marijuana, cocaine, heroin and, finally, crack and freebase--which seem for so many people to be the last stop on the elevator." Gaghan has stated that he began dealing with his addictions in 1997. "Over one long, five-day weekend, I had three separate heroin dealers get arrested," he said. "My dealer, my backup dealer and my backup-backup dealer. I was left alone, and I just hit that place, that total incomprehensible demoralization. That was the end of it; up five days straight, locked in the bathroom, convinced there was nowhere else to go, I had to kill myself, I'm going to kill myself. I just couldn't take another minute of it."[7]
He attended theUniversity of Kentucky and was a member ofDelta Tau Delta fraternity.[8] He was a student on the Fall 1986 Voyage of the "Semester at Sea" Study Abroad Program where he attended classes on board theSS Universe and sailed around the world. He eventually graduated fromBabson College in 1988 with a degree in screenwriting.[9][10] He also started a catalog company, Fallen Empire Inc., which he hoped would support his writing career.[citation needed]
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Gaghan wrote the screenplay forTraffic, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000. In addition toTraffic, Gaghan also directed and wrote the screenplays forSyriana (2005) andAbandon (2002); the former receiving comparable critical acclaim toTraffic, while the latter received negative reviews. Other writing credits includeRules of Engagement (2000),Havoc (2005), andThe Alamo (2004), as well as a handful of episodes of various television series. Gaghan turned down the chance to adaptDan Brown's novel,The Da Vinci Code.
In his television writing career, he won anEmmy Award for co-writing aNYPD Blue episode entitledWhere's Swaldo, in 1997. In addition toNYPD Blue, he has also written forThe Practice andNew York Undercover.
He was slated to direct a film adaptation of Canadian journalistMalcolm Gladwell's book,Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He has also been hired byWarner Bros. to write the screenplay of theDead Spy Running franchise written by authorJon Stock.[11] He is also set to direct crime thrillerCandy Store.[12]
On January 19, 2017, it was announced thatUbisoft had hired Gaghan to direct the film adaptation of the popular video gameThe Division, but it was announced later that Gaghan was no longer attached to the project.[13][14]
Gaghan has a son, Gardner (b. 1999), and a daughter, Elizabeth, who goes by the nickname of Betsy (b. 2001), from a previous relationship with actress Michael McCraine, whom he met in 1997 while at a recovery meeting.[15] On May 19, 2007, Gaghan marriedMarion "Minnie" Mortimer.[15] Together, they have a daughter born in 2009[16] and a son born in 2014.[17]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Rules of Engagement | No | Yes |
| Traffic | No | Yes | |
| 2002 | Abandon | Yes | Yes |
| 2004 | The Alamo | No | Yes |
| 2005 | Havoc | No | Yes |
| Syriana | Yes | Yes | |
| 2016 | Gold | Yes | No |
| 2020 | Dolittle | Yes | Yes |
| 2026 | Billion Dollar Spy | No | Yes |
Uncredited revisions
| Year | Title | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | New York Undercover | Yes | No | Episode "CAT" |
| 1995–1996 | American Gothic | Yes | No | 7 episodes |
| 1996 | NYPD Blue | Yes | No | Episode "Where's 'Swaldo" |
| 1997 | The Practice | Yes | No | Episodes "First Degree: Part 1" and "Sex, Lies, and Monkeys: Part 2" |
| Sleepwalkers | Yes | Yes | Episode "Night Terrors" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Alfie | Adam | |
| 2008 | Entourage | Himself | Episode "Welcome to the Jungle" |
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