Eli Attie is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, and former White House staff member. He served as

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...

's chief

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

and campaign speechwriter through Gore's concession of the 2000 presidential election, which Attie and Gore wrote together. Attie was a longtime writer and producer on the drama series ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White Hous ...

'' and '' House'', and is currently a writer and co-executive producer on Showtime's '' Billions''.

Early life and education

Attie grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. His mother is acclaimed feminist painter

Dotty Attie Dotty Attie (born 1938, Pennsauken, New Jersey) is an acclaimed feminist painter, and the co-founder of the first all-female cooperative art gallery in America, A.I.R. Gallery. Her work has been widely exhibited and is in many major museum colle ...

, his father was commercial and fine art photographer David Attie, whose work he has helped to revive, and his brother is widely-published mathematician Oliver Attie. He is a graduate of Hunter College High School and

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

. While in college, he was an editor of

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

Career

Political work

Attie began his career in Democratic politics and government. He was chief White House and campaign speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore through the Florida recount in 2000. It was Attie who broke the news to Gore on election night – as he was about to deliver a concession speech Attie had written – that he was suddenly only 600 votes behind

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in Florida, and that the election might not be over.

Television

After working in the real White House and on the campaign trail, Attie became a writer on the NBC-TV series ''

'' for the last five of the show's seven seasons, ultimately serving as supervising producer. Series creator

Aaron Sorkin Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing at an early age. Sorkin has earned an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime ...

has written that Attie "made a big impact immediately," reducing the show's need for part-time consultants. A number of the show's key storylines came from Attie's own experiences in politics. In addition, according to

David Remnick David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of th ...

's biography of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, '' The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama'', and other news sources, Attie used then-State Senator Obama as a model for the character of

Matt Santos Matthew Vincente Santos is a fictional character on the American television show ''The West Wing'', played by Jimmy Smits. Santos' initial appearance in the series was as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Texas's 18th congressional dis ...

, a presidential candidate played by actor

Jimmy Smits Jimmy L. Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama '' L.A. Law'', NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama ''NYPD Blue'', Matt Santos ...

in the final two seasons of the show. Attie was nominated for Writers Guild and

Humanitas ''Humanitas'' is a Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization, and kindness. It has uses in the Enlightenment, which are discussed below. Classical origins of term The Latin word ''humanitas'' corresponded to the Greek concepts of '' philanthr ...

awards for the episode "Election Day: Part 2", in which Santos wins the presidency. In 2020, Attie collaborated with Sorkin on new material for the show's HBO Max reunion special, A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote. Attie was a writer and co-executive producer on '' House'' for the last five of its eight seasons, and was nominated for a Humanitas award for the series finale, "Everybody Dies", which he co-wrote with series creator

David Shore David Shore (born July 3, 1959) is a Canadian television writer. Shore worked on ''Family Law'', ''NYPD Blue'' and ''Due South'', also producing many episodes of the latter. He created the critically acclaimed series ''House'' and more recently, ...

. He makes an uncredited appearance in the episode as well. His more recent television credits include Fox's well-reviewed baseball drama '' Pitch'' and Showtime's hit Wall Street drama '' Billions''.

Other work

In addition to his work in television, Attie's screenplay "Smile Relax Attack" was included on the 2009

Black List Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

, an industry list of executives' most-liked scripts, and he has done numerous uncredited movie rewrites. He has also been a guest on political consultant David Axelrod's podcast "The Axe Files", and on

Aimee Mann Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyr ...

and

Ted Leo Theodore Francis Leo is an American singer and musician. He is the frontman and lead guitarist of the rock group Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and in 2013, he and Aimee Mann formed the indie rock duo The Both. Early life Born in South Bend, I ...

's podcast "The Art of Process". Attie was a frequent guest on "

The West Wing Weekly ''The West Wing Weekly'' is an American podcast hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway and Joshua Malina. In each episode, the hosts discuss one episode of the television program ''The West Wing,'' which originally aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006. The podca ...

", a podcast that ran episode-by-episode through the entire series of ''The West Wing''. Attie has worked as a rock critic for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', '' Slate'', and other publications.

Personal life and awards

Attie is married to Alison Megliola, a

dietitian A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ca ...

and

healthcare manager Health administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management or hospital management is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of public health systems, health care systems, hospitals, and hospital networks ...

. He is on the board of

Let America Vote Let America Vote is a political action organization founded by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander in February 2017. Its mission is to end voter suppression across the country. Overview Kander first became concerned about voter suppr ...

, a non-profit founded by

Jason Kander Jason David Kander (born May 4, 1981) is an American attorney, author, veteran, and politician. A Democrat, he served as the 39th secretary of state of Missouri, from 2013 to 2017. He had previously served as a member of the Missouri House of R ...

that fights

voter suppression Voter suppression is a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting ...

. Attie is a seven-time Emmy nominee and a three-time WGA award nominee; he won an Emmy Award for "The West Wing Documentary Special" and a Peabody Award for co-writing the September 11th special America: A Tribute to Heroes. He won ASCAP's Deems-Taylor award for pop music writing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attie, Eli American speechwriters Hunter College High School alumni Harvard College alumni Living people The Harvard Crimson people Year of birth missing (living people) Primetime Emmy Award winners