Michael Gore

In 1981, Michael Gore won two Academy Awards for the movie Fame - one for Best Original Score, and a second for Best Song with lyricist Dean Pitchford. He was also nominated that year for "Out Here On My Own," from the same film. In addition, Fame won the Golden Globe for Best Song, and was nominated for a Grammy. The movie's soundtrack sold in excess of 7 million copies worldwide.

In 1983, Gore was again Oscar-nominated for Best Score for the Oscar-winning Best Picture Terms of Endearment. His instrumental version of the movie's theme went Top 5 on the Adult Contemporary charts. He composed the original score for Pretty in Pink in 1986, and was a major contributor to the musical underscore for Broadcast News in 1987. Other scores include Defending Your Life, Mr. Wonderful, The Butcher's Wife and Superstar.

His songwriting for movies include collaborating with lyricist Dean Pitchford on "Never" for Footloose. With lyricist Lynn Ahrens, he wrote two original songs for Camp.

Notable in Michael's credits is composing the music for Whitney Houston's multi-platinum seller (with lyricist Dean Pitchford) "All The Man That I Need," which simultaneously reached #1 on the pop, adult contemporary, and rhythm and blues charts. Artists including Luther Vandross, Patti Labelle and L.L. Cool J. have performed his compositions.

Michael served as producer for a series of 9 recordings for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. His CD of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I starring Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley received critical acclaim, was Number One on Billboard's Classical Crossover Album chart for 17 weeks, and remained in the Top Ten for almost a year. As the album's producer, he was nominated for a Grammy and won The Billboard Award for Top Crossover Recording.

In addition to Executive Producing ABC's acclaimed 3-hour telefilm of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr., he produced all the music for the film and its soundtrack recording. As a solo recording artist, he composed and performed "October Moon" for the CD Song Without Words for Windham Hill Records.

The 2020 Grammy Awards celebrated longtime telecast producer Ken Ehrlich’s 40th anniversary with a special all-star performance of Gore and Pitchford’s “I Sing the Body Electric” from Fame.

Dean Pitchford

Born and raised in Hawaii and graduated from Yale University, Dean Pitchford performed off- and on-Broadway (Godspell; Pippin) before turning to songwriting, screenwriting and directing.

Dean was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning the 1981 Best Song Oscar for "Fame," co-written w/ Michael Gore), three Golden Globes (winning for "Fame"), eight Grammys and two Tonys; his songs - recorded by such artists as Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Cher, Peter Allen, LL Cool J, Kenny Loggins, Hugh Jackman, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler and Martina McBride - have sold over 70 million records.

The musical stage adaptation (with Walter Bobbie) of his original screenplay for Footloose ran for more than 700 performances on Broadway and is now seen all over the world. Dean also provided the lyrics for Carrie: The Musical, which was produced in 1988 by the Royal Shakespeare Company -- first in England and then on Broadway -- and was revived in 2012 by New York's MCC Theater.

Dean's middle-grade novels, The Big One-Oh and Captain Nobody, are published by Putnam/Penguin; his performances of their audiobook recordings (Listening Library/Random House) were both nominated for Grammys. His third novel, Nickel Bay Nick, was published to acclaim in 2013, and Dean voiced that audiobook for Audible.com.

In 2019, the musical adaptation of his first novel, The Big One-Oh!, premiered at New York’s Atlantic Theatre with lyrics by Dean, music by Doug Besterman and a libretto by Timothy Allen McDonald. www.deanpitchford.com

Lawrence D. Cohen

Lawrence D. Cohen's first feature script was his adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel, Carrie (1976). His screenplay for the classic Brian de Palma film earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America.

After beginning his career as a film/theater critic for a number of leading periodicals, he worked as an assistant to famed Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett on the latter's Tony Award-winning Twigs, as well as the musical Seesaw.

He discovered the screenplay and served as Production Executive on the 1975 Oscar-winning Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and co-scripted Martin Scorsese’s documentary, Italianamerican.

Continuing his ongoing relationship with Stephen King in 1980, he wrote the 4-hour teleplay of It, which USA Today called “the scariest movie ever made for TV.” It and Cohen’s subsequent adaptation of King's The Tommyknockers (1993) became two of the network's highest-rated miniseries. In 2007, he was reunited with the Master of Horror with his adaptation of The End of the Whole Mess for TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology series. The Writers Guild of America nominated the script as Best Drama Episode.

Other films include Ghost Story, based on Peter Straub's bestseller. The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films nominated it for its Saturn Award as Best Horror Film. For ABC, he wrote the 3-hour teleplay adaptation for Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific (2001), and served as the project's executive producer with partner Michael Gore.

Stephen King

New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1973, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co. accepted his first novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time; it propelled him to mainstream literary stardom. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities, including many libraries, and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.