Alan Ball born 13 May 1957Alan Ball - born in Atlanta, Georgia - is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, producer and occasional actor, who is best known for writing the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film American Beauty (1999), and for creating the HBO original drama series Six Feet Under. His most recent creation is the acclaimed TV vampire drama True Blood.
Alan Ball was an undergraduate student of the Florida State University School of Theatre. He did not receive a diploma; however he informed reporters, after winning an Emmy for directing at the 54th Emmy Awards, that he did start writing and producing his own work at FSU and has been doing so since.
Ball started out by writing for the TV show Cybill, starring Cybill Shepherd, and he stated that he based the horrific suburban wife character played by Annette Bening in American Beauty on Shepherd, who has a (possibly unfair) reputation for being extremely difficult to work with, from both male and female co-workers. Ball has also written scripts for several stage plays.He is openly gay and his work frequently includes gay themes and characters.
In 2011 Ball was sued by his California neighbour Quentin Tarantino over the 'obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams' of his collection of Macaw parrots.