David E. Kelley biography

Synopsis

Early Career

Television and film writer and producer. Born in 1956, in Waterville, Maine. Kelley majored in politics at Princeton University and was the captain of the ice hockey team. His father coached the NHL's Hartford Whalers and later served as the president of the Pittsburgh Penguins. After graduating from Princeton in 1979, Kelley attended Boston University Law School, where he earned his J.D. in 1983. He worked at the Boston law firm of Fine & Ambrogne, mostly dealing with real estate and minor criminal cases. The energetic Kelley found practicing law somewhat boring, and in late 1983 he began writing a screenplay for a movie. He optioned the screenplay in 1986 and obtained an agent, who sent Kelley's script to Steven Bochco, a television producer who was looking for legal-minded writers to work on his new drama series. Bochco met with Kelley, and was so impressed he hired the young lawyer as the story editor of the new show, L.A. Law. Kelley took a leave of absence from his job at Fine & Ambrogne and moved to Los Angeles.

Breakthrough Series

Though the first film he wrote, From the Hip (1987) - about an ambitious young lawyer - was only moderately well-received, Kelley's work for L.A. Law, which debuted on NBC in the fall of 1987, quickly earned him recognition. The show became a hit, and after a year Kelley quit his job in Boston. He moved up to executive story editor at the beginning of the 1987-88 season, then began to work his way up the producing hierarchy. When Bochco left to develop shows for ABC, at the end of the show's third season, Kelley was named executive producer. In addition to his producing credit, he was still writing the majority of the show's episodes. In 1989, 1990, and 1991, L.A. Law won the Emmy Award for outstanding drama series; Kelley himself won Emmys for writing in 1990 and 1991. He also worked with Bochco on the development of Doogie Howser, M.D., which premiered in 1989.

Kelley left to create his own series, Picket Fences, for CBS, in 1992. The eccentric series, set in the fictional small town of Rome, Wisconsin, earned critical acclaim, including back-to-back Emmy Awards for drama series in 1993 and 1994. Between Picket Fences and his next creation, the medical drama Chicago Hope, which premiered in 1994, Kelley wrote more than 40 one-hour episodes during a single season.

Personal Life

In 1995, Kelley relinquished his duties on both shows to spend more time with his family. He had married the actress Michelle Pfeiffer in March 1993, and adopted a daughter, Claudia Rose, whom Pfeiffer had previously adopted on her own.