Who

Baitz is a playwright and screenwriter known for his semi-autobiographical plays and for the TV show he created, Brothers & Sisters.

Backstory

The son of an exec for Carnation Milk, Baitz spent his childhood living in Brazil and Durban, South Africa. He and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was a teen, and he attended the infamous star factory Beverly Hills High School. After the success of his 1985 one-act play Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks, based on his experiences in L.A., Baitz moved to New York. In the late 1980s his plays began to generate critical acclaim, particularly the 1987 off-Broadway production of The Film Society (starring Nathan Lane) and 1991's The Substance of Fire with Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica Parker (which was made into a 1996 film of the same name). Baitz's semi-autobiographical 1996 play A Fair Country earned him a Pulitzer nomination, and in the decade or so since, he's continued to write plays, while also branching out into film and TV writing.

Of note

Baitz's Paris Letter, starring Ron Rifkin, was produced at Roundabout in 2005. On the movie front, his recent work includes 2003's People I Know, which starred Al Pacino as a haggard New York publicist (reportedly based on PR legend Bobby Zarem). As a writer for the small screen, he wrote scripts for The West Wing and Alias, and in 2006 created the ABC family drama Brothers & Sisters, starring Calista Flockhart, Rob Lowe, Sally Field and, like almost every project Baitz has been involved with, Ron Rifkin. Despite middling reviews, the show has garnered solid ratings, but Baitz is no longer affiliated with it—ABC brass elbowed him out midway through the second season.

On screen

Given that Baitz is foxier than your average playwright, it's not surprising that he's had some screen time of his own. The sometime actor was typecast by director Henry Jaglom as a successful gay playwright in the film Last Summer in the Hamptons.

Medical file

In 1996, Baitz contracted a heart valve infection that required emergency surgery.

Personal

Baitz had a 12-year relationship with theater director Joe Mantello, but the two split in 2002. In addition to an apartment in Chelsea, Baitz also has homes in Venice, CA—where his neighbors are Amy Poehler and her husband Will Arnett—and Sag Harbor. He has a three-legged dog named Trip.