Rick Cleveland is an American television writer, playwright, and monologist, best known for writing on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

original series '' Six Feet Under'' and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...

''. His 2011 play ''The Rail Splitter'' premiered at Carthage College as the third production of Carthage's annual New Play Initiative. The production also traveled to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (Region 3) in 2012.

Education

Cleveland, a graduate of the Playwrights Workshop at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

, is also a founding member of Chicago's American Blues Theater.

Career

Film

Cleveland,

Brian Koppelman Brian William Koppelman (born April 27, 1966) is an American television and film writer, producer and director. Koppelman is the co-writer of ''Ocean's Thirteen'' and ''Rounders (1998 film), Rounders'', a producer of films including ''The Illusion ...

, David Levien, and Matthew Chapman co-wrote the 2003 film '' Runaway Jury'' based on the book by

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955) is an American novelist, lawyer, and former politician, known for his best-selling legal thrillers. According to the Academy of Achievement, American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 37 ...

. He also wrote a 1998 screenplay for the independent film ''

Jerry and Tom ''Jerry and Tom'' is a 1998 American black comedy crime film directed by Saul Rubinek in his directorial debut. The screenplay was adapted by Rick Cleveland from his own 1994 one-act play. The film stars Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell as contract ...

''.

Television

In 2000, Cleveland and ''The West Wing'' creator Aaron Sorkin won the Emmy Award for Best Writing for a Drama Series their episode " In Excelsis Deo". The episode originally aired during the 1999–2000 season. Cleveland and Sorkin also won the

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility Th ...

for best episodic drama at the February 2001 ceremony for "In Excelsis Deo". Cleveland worked on the HBO original series ''Six Feet Under'' throughout the show's five season run. Cleveland joined the crew as a writer and producer for the show's first season in 2001. He wrote the episode "The Trip". He was promoted to supervising producer for the second season in 2002. He wrote two further episodes – "Driving Mr. Mossback" and "The Liar and the Whore". He remained a supervising producer for the third season in 2003. He scripted two more episodes – "Nobody Sleeps" and "Death Works Overtime". He was promoted to co-executive producer for the fourth season in 2004. He wrote two more episodes – "In Case of Rapture" and "Grinding the Corn". He was promoted again to executive producer for the fifth and final season in 2005 and wrote his last episode, "Eat a Peach". He wrote eight episodes in total for the series. Cleveland won the Jury Award for Best One Person Show at the 2006 US Comedy Arts Festival in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

for his performance in "My Buddy Bill", about his fictional friendship with President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

, a monologue play filmed on June 15, 2007, for a Comedy Central Special and DVD. He served as writer for the

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

television drama ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...

'' for the show's second season in 2008. He was nominated for the

for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the second season. Cleveland recently served as a consulting producer and writer on the Showtime series '' Nurse Jackie''.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Blog Entries by Rick Cleveland
at ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

''
Rick Cleveland
at

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland, Rick Primetime Emmy Award winners Living people Writers Guild of America Award winners American male television writers University of Iowa alumni American television producers American television writers American male screenwriters Year of birth missing (living people)