Alan Erwin Ball (born May 13, 1957)[1] is an American writer and director for film and television. Ball is best known for writing the screenplay for the dramedy film American Beauty (1999), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also created the HBO drama series Six Feet Under (2001–2005) and True Blood (2008–2014), and served as an executive producer on the Cinemax action drama series Banshee (2013–2016). He wrote and directed the films Towelhead (2007) and Uncle Frank (2020).
Early life
Ball was born in Marietta, Georgia to Frank and Mary Ball, both of whom were aircraft inspectors. His older sister, Mary Ann, was killed in a car accident when Ball was 13; he was in the passenger seat at the time.[2] He attended Marietta High School in Marietta, Georgia and went to college at the University of Georgia and Florida State University. Ball graduated from Florida State in 1980 with a degree in theater arts.[3][4]
After college, Ball began work as a playwright at the General Nonsense Theater Company in Sarasota, Florida.[5]
Career
Ball broke into television as a writer and story editor on the sitcoms Grace Under Fire and Cybill.[6]
In 2010, Ball began work on a television adaptation of the crime noir novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston, to be titled All Signs of Death.[10][11] In December 2010, after several months of pre-production, HBO cancelled production.[12]
Ball was one of the executive producers of the Cinemax series Banshee.[13]
In July 2016, it was announced that Ball's family drama Here and Now had been ordered to series by HBO.[14] Starring Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter,[15][16] the show was cancelled in April 2018 after one ten-episode season.
Personal life
Ball has discussed his Buddhist faith in numerous interviews, noting how it has influenced his filmmaking. In an interview with Amazon.com, Ball commented on the plastic bag scene in American Beauty, stating: "I had an encounter with a plastic bag! And I didn't have a video camera, like Ricky does... There's a Buddhist notion of the miraculous within the mundane, and I think we certainly live in a culture that encourages us not to look for that."[17] Ball also discussed how his Buddhism shaped themes in Six Feet Under and True Blood.[18][19]
Ball is gay and has been called "a strong voice for [the] LGBT community".[20][21] In 2008, he made Out magazine's annual list of the 100 most impressive gay men and women.[22]
^Robinson, Charlotte (September 5, 2008). "Alan Ball's LGBT Vision: Audio Interview". Outtake. Retrieved May 3, 2015. He is also openly gay & a strong voice for our LGBT community.
^Delaney, Sam (July 11, 2009). "TV preview: True Blood". The Guardian. Retrieved May 3, 2015. Ball has been lauded as a strong and significant voice for the American gay community.
Alan Ball (September 9, 2008). "SF Weekly Interview: Alan Ball". SF Weekly (transcript). Interviewed by Tamara Palmer. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
Linda Rapp (February 12, 2007). "Ball, Alan (b. 1957)". glbt Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
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