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Alan Ball (born May 13, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, producer and occasional actor, who is best known for writing the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film American Beauty, and for creating the HBO original drama series Six Feet Under.

Alan Ball was born on May 13, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in the suburb of Marietta.^[1] Ball was an undergraduate student of the Florida State University School of Theatre, but did not receive a diploma.^{[citation needed]} After winning an Emmy for directing at the 54th Emmy Awards, he told reporters he started writing and producing his own work at FSU and has been doing so since.

Ball started out by writing for the TV show Cybill, starring Cybill Shepherd, and he stated that he based the horrific suburban wife character played by Annette Bening in American Beauty on Shepherd, who has earned a reputation, from both male and female co-workers, for being extremely difficult to work with.^{[citation needed]} He also created Oh, Grow Up, a sitcom that aired on ABC in 1999 but was cancelled after only eleven episodes had aired. Ball has also written scripts for stage plays such as Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Bachelor Holiday, Power Lunch and Your Mother's Butt.

He is openly gay and his work frequently includes gay themes and characters.^[2]

In 2004, he acquired the film rights to the Alicia Erian novel Towelhead, published on April 6, 2005, and he announced that he would write the screenplay and direct the film entitled Nothing is Private, which would start production in 2006 after having wrapped up the fifth and final season of Six Feet Under. The film wrapped shooting in November 2006 and is based on the novel about a young Arab-American woman growing up in Texas who struggles with her identity, just as she falls for a bigoted Army Reservist during the Gulf War. Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello star, and newcomer Summer Bishil plays the protagonist. The movie will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2007. "To me, it's a story of personal courage," Ball tells Time Out magazine, "claiming responsibility to be who you are at a very early age and without proper role models to guide you."

In 2005, it was announced that Ball would undertake the writing and direction of a new HBO series based upon Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries. The series, about a single barmaid and her adventures with the coming-out-of-the-coffin-undead, is to be titled True Blood and is slated to air in Autumn 2007.

In January 2007, the premier of his play All That I Will Ever Be opened at New York Theatre Workshop in New York City.

Ball has written nine episodes for his series Six Feet Under and has directed six episodes including the series finale.

• "Pilot" (2001)
• "An Open Book" (2001)
• "Knock, Knock" (2001)
• "In the Game" (2002)
• "Someone Else's Eyes" (2002)
• "Perfect Circles" (2003)
• "Nobody Sleeps", with Rick Cleveland (2003)
• "Can I Come Up Now?" (2004)
• "Everyone's Waiting", (series finale) (2005)

• "Pilot" (2001)
• "Knock, Knock" (2001)
• "The Last Time" (2002)
• "I'm Sorry, I'm Lost" (2003)
• "Untitled" (2004)
• "Everyone's Waiting" (series finale) (2005)

• Alan Ball at the Internet Movie Database