Mike Rich

Ever since he won the Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship, Mike Rich has been one of the most sought after screenwriters in Hollywood. Rich became a fellow in 1998 with his first-ever writing effort, "Finding Forrester" (2000). A week after winning the fellowship, Columbia Pictures bought the script for six figures-a rare thing to happen to a tyro scribe (Ironically, Columbia passed on the script six months earlier-before it was a Nicholl winner.) A week after the sale, famed actor Sean Connery signed on to play William Forrester, a one-time Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist-turned-recluse, a la J.D. Salinger. In the blink of an eye, Rich went from a Portland radio news reporter to one of the hottest writers in the business. And with the sudden change, Rich began to get out of life what he wanted: to tell stories for a living.