Doug Ellin

Doug Ellin was a writer and director who was best known for creating the HBO comedy series, "Entourage" (HBO, 2004-2011). Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ellin moved to Los Angeles in the early '90s to become a stand-up comedian. He quickly realized, however, that he was much funnier as a writer, and soon decided to devote himself to writing screenplays. By day he worked in the mail room at New Line Cinema, and by night he wrote spec comedy scripts. One of those scripts eventually found its way into the hands of producer Mike DeLuca, who immediately saw promise in Ellin as a writer and director. Bestowing his trust onto the young filmmaker, DeLuca funded Ellin's first short film called "The Pitch" (1993). The film starred a pre-"Friends" David Schwimmer and earned Ellin a spot in the prestigious American Film Institute. When he graduated from AFI in 1996, Ellin set out to make his first movie, the indie comedy "Phat Beach" (1996). That film was not well-received but, undeterred, Ellin followed it up two years later with "Kissing a Fool" (1998), which again starred David Schwimmer. After floundering for a few years in movies, Ellin landed a staff writing job on the ABC sitcom "Life with Bonnie" (ABC, 2002-04), starring Bonnie Hunt. Ellin found that he enjoyed the immediacy of television and decided to write a pilot script about a young movie star and his madcap group of friends. The pilot was called "Entourage," and in 2004 HBO aired the first season. The show was a breakout success for the network and ran for eight seasons, before airing its final episode in 2011. Ellin returned to the "Entourage" world in 2015 by writing and directing a feature film reboot that premiered in the summer of 2015.