Beau Willimon

Born in Alexandria Virginia to a Navy captain father, playwright and screenwriter Beau Willimon moved around regularly with his family. Willimon grew up in Hawaii, San Francisco, and Philadelphia before settling more permanently in St. Louis, MO after Willimon's father's retirement. Willimon graduated in 1995 from John Burroughs School where he enrolled in drama classes taught by the actor Jon Hamm. Willimon graduated from Columbia University in 1999, and began working as a volunteer on political campaigns. He spent time living in Vietnam before returning to New York to attend graduate school at Columbia. He was a novice playwright but was committed to the medium, graduating in 2003. Willimon next enrolled in the Julliard School's Playwriting program, where he wrote a play, "Farragut North," inspired by his work as a press aide on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. The play was produced and premiered off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company. Willimon wrote several other plays that were produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London. "Farragut North" was later adapted into a screenplay for the film "Ides of March," starring and directed by George Clooney. In 2012 Willimon began development for the series that would become political drama "House of Cards" (Netflix 2013-).