Life and Career
Attanasio was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Connie, a real estate broker, and Joseph Attanasio, a commercial consultant. Raised in the Pelham Bay section of The Bronx, he moved with his family to Tenafly, New Jersey. He is a 1981 graduate of Harvard College where he lived in Currier House, and earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1984. His wife Katie Jacobs is his producing partner; Attanasio and Jacobs have three children: Annabelle, John, and Grace. He is the brother of Mark Attanasio, Los Angeles investment manager who is the principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.
He was a film critic for The Washington Post from 1984 to 1987. He started writing for television with the CBS sitcom Doctor Doctor and the NBC crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, which he created. In 1994 he wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation for the drama Quiz Show. He would later write the screenplays for the thriller Disclosure, the gangster movie Donnie Brasco, the science fiction film Sphere, and the political thriller The Sum of All Fears. In 2000 he returned to television and started executive producing, in addition to writing, the medical drama Gideon's Crossing and the pilot for R.U.S.H. Along with David Shore, he is one of the creators of the TV series House. In 2006 he wrote the screenplay for the dramatic film The Good German. According to various reports, Attanasio is co-writing a new film based on John Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden.
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