theOscarSite Bio: Born in Garwood, NJ, Perrotta developed his eye for the world amidst the songs of Bruce Springsteen and beneath the glow of dark American movies -- THE GRADUATE, CHINATOWN, TAXI DRIVER -- that graced the Sixties and Seventies. He earned a B.A. in English from Yale University and then received an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from Syracuse University. He has taught at Yale and Harvard University.

In 1994, Perrotta published his first book, Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies, a collection of shorts stories that The Washington Post called "more powerful than any other coming-of-age novel." On the heels of Bad Haircut came two more novels focused on the clash of adolescence and adulthood: The Wishbones and Election, both published to much acclaim, though it was the latter that would prove to be his breakout success. A high school election gone awry, a teacher-student affair, teenagers on the verge of adulthood -- Election was a captivating satire that was optioned for a film three years before it was published as a novel -- arriving in the bookstores in 1999, a few month before the movie came out. The film turned into a popular Paramount movie starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon.

Following Election, Perrotta continued to write about the humor and delight in everyday social interactions, only he shifted his focus to an older -- though just as troubled -- cast of characters: first with Joe College, a comic journey into the dark side of higher education, love, and food service; and then most recently with Little Children, his most ambitious novel that explores the psychological depths beneath the surface of suburbia. Little Children has been chosen for numerous "Best Books of 2004" lists -- including The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek, National Public Radio, and People magazine -- and has garnered tremendous praise from all fronts, calling him "an American Chekhov" (New York Times) and a "rare writer equally gifted at drawing people's emotional maps...and creating sidesplitting scenes" (People). Perrotta collaborated with director Todd Field on adapting his novel to the screen for the 2006 release of the film.

Perrotta lives with his wife and two children (a son and a daugher) in Belmont, MA, and has been working on a screenplay with ex-"Frasier" writer Rob Greenberg. He is also working on a screenplay for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directors of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.

· Achievement in Writing (Adapted Screenplay) 2006: LITTLE CHILDREN (w. Todd Field)