Stephen Gaghan

Stephen Gaghan (born May 6, 1965, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American film writer and director. He won the Academy Award for best screenplay on Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic (2000). Other writing credits include Syriana (2005), Havoc (2005), The Alamo (2004), Abandon (2002), Rules of Engagement (2000), as well as a handful of episodes of various television series. Gaghan recently turned down the chance to adapt Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code.

In his final days of highschool upon graduation, Gaghan was expelled for driving a Go-kart through the halls of his highschool. He was also a former drug-addict and straight A student. During the release of Traffic, someone commented on one of the teen characters in the movie who is a drug addict and a straight A student, calling it unrealistic, which Gaghan defended by stating that he had straight A's while he was living through a drug nightmare in school also.