William F. Zorzi Jr. (born 1954) is an American journalist and screenwriter. He worked at ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' for almost twenty years and covered politics for the majority of his career. He has also written for the
HBO television series ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...
'' and is the co-writer of the
HBO miniseries, ''
Show Me a Hero
''Show Me a Hero'' is a 2015 American miniseries based on the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by former ''New York Times'' writer Lisa Belkin about Yonkers mayor Nick Wasicsko. Like the book, the miniseries details a white middle-class ne ...
.''
Personal life
Zorzi is the son of reporter and public relations executive William F. Zorzi, Sr., and financial manager Mary Zorzi (née Fannon). He has three siblings, a brother and two sisters.
Career
Journalism
He worked at ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' for almost twenty years and covered politics for the majority of his career.
He has also covered the courts and the crime beat.
As a reporter Zorzi has been described as tough and cranky and characteristically refused to accept free gifts (including food) from the politicians he was covering.
He wrote a weekly column called "The Political Game" for five years in the mid nineties.
He left reporting in 1998 and became ''The Sun's'' Weekend Metropolitan Editor.
He later became Assistant City Editor.
Television
Zorzi had previously worked with television producer
David Simon
David Judah Simon (born February 9, 1960) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work on '' The Wire'' (2002–08).
He worked for '' The Baltimore Sun'' City Desk for twelve years (1982–95), wrote '' H ...
at ''The Sun''.
Zorzi worked for 13 years on the passion project that eventually became the 2015
HBO miniseries ''
Show Me a Hero
''Show Me a Hero'' is a 2015 American miniseries based on the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by former ''New York Times'' writer Lisa Belkin about Yonkers mayor Nick Wasicsko. Like the book, the miniseries details a white middle-class ne ...
,'' which he created with Simon.
The project was to be "about the volatile events surrounding a federal public housing desegregation case in Yonkers, NY."
In 2001, Simon sent Zorzi, who at that time was assistant city editor at ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
,'' a copy of Lisa Belkin's book ''Show Me a Hero: A Tale of Murder, Suicide, Race, and Redemption'', which he was taking to
HBO as a potential project.
In 2002, Zorzi quit his job at ''The Sun'' and began working on what became a long-term project.
HBO had an option on the book, but it spent years in script re-writes with Zorzi as Simon and Zorzi were both busy working on other projects.
Zorzi had a brief cameo appearance in Simon's HBO crime series ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...
'' as a reporter in the 2002 episode "
The Buys." Zorzi joined the crew of ''The Wire'' as a staff writer for the
third season in 2004.
Zorzi was hired to add authenticity to a new political story line. Fellow writer
George Pelecanos commented that he knew that anything he wrote for the political story line would be extensively re-written by Simon and Zorzi.
Zorzi was promoted to story editor for the
fourth season in 2006 and made his television writing debut.
He wrote the teleplay for the episode "
Unto Others
Unto may refer to:
* Unto (name)
* Unto a Good Land (Swedish: Invandrarna) is a novel by Vilhelm Moberg from 1952
*Unto Ashes, musical ensemble based in New York City incorporating madrigal, folk, New Age music and Dark Wave
*Unto the Fourth Genera ...
" from a story he co-wrote with producer
Ed Burns
Edward P. Burns (born January 29, 1946) is an American screenwriter, novelist, and producer. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. For HBO, they have collaborated on ''The Corner,'' ''The Wire,'' ''Generation Kill'', ''The P ...
.
Zorzi and the writing staff won the
Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Dramatic Series at the
February 2008 ceremony and the 2007
Edgar Award for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for their work on the fourth season.
Zorzi returned as an executive story editor and writer for the
fifth season in 2008.
He also joined the cast as a
fictionalized version of himself.
He wrote the teleplay for the episode "
Unconfirmed Reports" from a story he co-wrote with Simon.
Zorzi and the writing staff were nominated for the WGA award for Best Dramatic Series a second time at the
February 2009 ceremony for their work on the fifth season but ''
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 ...
'' won the award.
Teaching
Following production of the fourth season Zorzi spent a year teaching Journalism at the Baltimore Freedom Academy, a public high school in the city.
He also helped the school to launch a newspaper.
Filmography
Production staff
Writer
Awards
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zorzi, William F
1954 births
Living people
American male screenwriters
American male television actors
American television writers
American newspaper reporters and correspondents
The Baltimore Sun people
Writers from Baltimore
Writers Guild of America Award winners
American male television writers
American male journalists
Journalists from Maryland
Screenwriters from Maryland