Warren Leight

Warren Leight was born to jazz trumpeter Don Leight (1923–2004), and his wife, Timmy, the second of two children.

In the 1950s, his father played with jazz musicians such as Claude Thornhill, Woody Herman and Buddy Rich.

Leight's uncle, Larry, and paternal great-grandfather, Harry Gurovitch, were also trumpet players of Russian descent.

His grandmother, Sarah Gurowitsch, was a cellist.

He was raised in the Sunnyside section of the borough of Queens and the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Both Warren and his older sister, Jody (born 1955), grew up with financial trouble and around clubs.

Warren Donald Leight (born January 17, 1957) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and television producer.

He is best known for his work on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lights Out and as the showrunner for In Treatment and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Leight received a B.S. degree in communication from Stanford University in 1977, planning a career as a journalist.

Leight began his writing career with the 1980 horror film Mother's Day, followed by the documentary Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982) (as the voice of "Terrible Teddy"), the indie Stuck on You! (1983), and the Miramax film The Night We Never Met (1993), which he also directed, starring Matthew Broderick, and which earned him a nomination at the Deauville Film Festival.

In the 1980s, he was the creative director/writer for a quartet of "witty" female comics known as the "High Heeled Women," which included actress Arleen Sorkin, who performed in cabarets in New York City.

He is married to Karen Hauser, who created the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB.com) and serves as Research Director for the Broadway League.

They live in New York City with their two daughters.

For his first stage project, Leight teamed with composer-lyricist Charles Strouse on the musical Mayor, inspired by Ed Koch and his dealings with Leona Helmsley and Bess Myerson.

It ran for 185 performances at the Top of the Gate in Greenwich Village starting on May 13, 1985.

The musical transferred uptown to the Latin Quarter on October 23, 1985, running to January 5, 1986, for another 70 performances.

He received a 1986 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book.

Stray Cats is a "collection of musically influenced monologues" about men, called "cats".

The play opened Off-Broadway, produced by the Ma-Yi Theater Company at The Culture Project 45 Bleecker Theatre, on September 17, 1995, in previews.

Directed by Loy Arcenas, the cast included Laura Kai Chen, Ron Domingo, Wai Ching Ho, Francis Jue, Karen Tsen Lee, Abby Royle, Ean Sheehy and Henry Yuk.

The play was inspired by Leight's experiences teaching English in Guangdong (Canton), China.

He wrote the screenplay for the 1996 Greg Kinnear comedy Dear God.

Stray Cats was presented by All Season Theatre Group (New York City) on May 14, 1998, directed by Kevin Confoy.

The first production was at Naked Angels (New York City) with the collaboration of Jo Bonney and others.

Leight's 1998 play Side Man won him the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play and nominations for both the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

It starred Edie Falco and Frank Wood.

His play Side Man was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In 2001, his play Glimmer, Glimmer & Shine was produced by the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

It was produced Off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club from May 24, 2001, to July 8, 2001.

John Spencer appeared in both productions, directed by Evan Yionoulis.

No Foreigners Beyond This Point had its world premiere at Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland in November 2002, directed by Tim Vasen.

Leight ventured into television as a freelance writer for 100 Centre Street in 2002.

On a suggestion from playwright Theresa Rebeck, Law & Order: Criminal Intent executive producer René Balcer hired Leight to join the staff of the series in its second season as a writer/producer.

His colleagues included a reference to Leight's play Side Man; in a third-season episode, "Shrink-Wrapped"; a bickering couple argues about the motivations of the married couple in the play.

He contributed works to The 24 Hour Plays, a unique theatrical event in which several short plays are written, rehearsed, directed, and performed within 24 hours, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 (Daily Bread starring Billy Crudup, Rosie Perez and Rachel Dratch).

His play James and Annie premiered at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in March 2003.

The play involves an "interracial love affair".

He received a nomination for the 2006 Drama Desk Award, Play, for the Off-Broadway production.

Upon a recommendation from Balcer, Leight was named the show's executive producer and head writer in 2006 when Balcer left the show at the end of the fifth season.

In 2008, he left Criminal Intent after its seventh season to be the showrunner for HBO's series In Treatment, a year after CI moved to cable.