Rick Cleveland is an American television writer, playwright, and monologist, best known for writing on the
HBO original series ''
Six Feet Under'' and
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's ''
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 ...
''. His 2011 play ''The Rail Splitter'' premiered at
Carthage College and traveled to the Kennedy Center
American College Theatre Festival (Region 3) in 2012.
Education
Cleveland, a graduate of the Playwrights Workshop at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
,
is also a founding member of Chicago's
American Blues Theater.
Career
Film
Cleveland,
Brian Koppelman
Brian William Koppelman (born April 27, 1966) is an American showrunner. Koppelman is the co-writer of ''Ocean's Thirteen'' and ''Rounders'', the producer for films including '' The Illusionist'' and '' The Lucky Ones'', the director for films inc ...
,
David Levien
David Levien (born December 9, 1967) is a screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime's '' Billions'', along with Brian Koppelman. Over the past two decades Levien has created an ...
, and
Matthew Chapman co-wrote the 2003 film ''
Runaway Jury'' based on the book by
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Ame ...
. He also wrote a 1998 screenplay for the independent film ''
Jerry and Tom
''Jerry and Tom'' is a 1998 American black comedy film directed by Saul Rubinek in his directorial debut. The screenplay was adapted by Rick Cleveland from his own 1994 one-act play. The film stars Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell as contract kill ...
''.
Television
In 2000, Cleveland and ''The West Wing'' 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 ...
won the Emmy Award for Best Writing for a Drama Series their episode "
In Excelsis Deo". The episode originally aired during the 1999–2000 season. Cleveland and Sorkin also won the
Writers Guild of America Award for best episodic drama at the
February 2001 ceremony for "In Excelsis Deo".
Cleveland worked on the HBO original series ''Six Feet Under'' throughout the show's five season run. Cleveland joined the crew as a writer and producer for the show's first season in 2001. He wrote the episode "The Trip". He was promoted to supervising producer for the second season in 2002. He wrote two further episodes – "Driving Mr. Mossback" and "The Liar and the Whore". He remained a supervising producer for the third season in 2003. He scripted two more episodes – "Nobody Sleeps" and "Death Works Overtime". He was promoted to co-executive producer for the fourth season in 2004. He wrote two more episodes – "In Case of Rapture" and "Grinding the Corn". He was promoted again to executive producer for the fifth and final season in 2005 and wrote his last episode, "Eat a Peach". He wrote eight episodes in total for the series.
Cleveland won the Jury Award for Best One Person Show at the 2006 US Comedy Arts Festival in
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
for his performance in "My Buddy Bill", about his fictional friendship with President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, a monologue play filmed on June 15, 2007, for a Comedy Central Special and DVD.
He served as writer for the
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** ...
television drama ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...
'' for the show's second season in 2008. He was nominated for the
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series at the
February 2009 ceremony for his work on the second season.
Cleveland recently served as a consulting producer and writer on the
Showtime series ''
Nurse Jackie
''Nurse Jackie'' is an American medical comedy-drama television series. It premiered on Showtime on June 8, 2009, and its seventh and final season premiered on April 12, 2015. The series finale aired on June 28, 2015.
The show stars Edie Fal ...
''.
Filmography
References
External links
*
Blog Entries by Rick Clevelandat ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''
Rick Clevelandat
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland, Rick
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Living people
Writers Guild of America Award winners
American television writers
American male television writers
University of Iowa alumni
American television producers
American screenwriters
Year of birth missing (living people)