Biography
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor, and producer working in film, theatre, and television.
He is best known for writing American Beauty and True Blood, as well as creating Six Feet Under, projects that earned him an Academy Award, an Emmy, and honors from the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guilds.
Born in Marietta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball—an aircraft inspector and a homemaker—Ball experienced a tragic loss when his older sister, Mary Ann, died in a car accident while he was a passenger at age 13. He completed high school in Marietta and pursued higher education at the University of Georgia and Florida State University, earning a degree in theater arts in 1980. After college, he started working as a playwright with the General Nonsense Theater Company in Sarasota, Florida.
Ball began his television career as a writer and story editor on the sitcoms Grace Under Fire and Cybill. He penned two films: American Beauty (1999) and Towelhead (2007), the latter of which he also directed and produced. Additionally, he created, wrote, and executive produced the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and True Blood, serving as showrunner for True Blood during its first five seasons. In 2010, Ball worked on a television adaptation of Charlie Huston's crime noir novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, titled All Signs of Death; however, HBO canceled the project after months of pre-production. He also serves as an executive producer for the Cinemax series Banshee. In January 2015, it was announced that Ball's period musical drama Virtuoso had received a pilot order from HBO, with Elton John attached as executive producer. Confirmed cast members include Peter Macdissi, Iva Babic, Francois Civil, Lindsay Farris, Nico Mirallegro, and Alex Lawther.
Throughout his career in television and film, Ball has earned critical acclaim along with numerous awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and recognition from the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guilds.
14 wins and 23 nominations
