Background and career
Michael Mitnick (born September 7, 1983) is an American playwright and screenwriter.
Mitnick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Fox Chapel Area High School, a public school in the Allegheny Valley. As a high school student, he worked in the graphic design department of WQED Pittsburgh and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. His father is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh business school. His mother is a public librarian. Mitnick attended Harvard University, where he wrote or co-wrote four musical comedies, including one Hasty Pudding Theatricals show. His musical Snapshots had two off-Broadway performances in New York. He was a member of the a cappella group the Krokodiloes. After graduating in 2006, Mitnick worked at The Atlantic Monthly before earning his Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.
Mitnick co-wrote the holiday song "Christmas You Go So Fast," which was featured on Vinyl. He also co-wrote, with Will Connolly and Kim Rosenstock, the musical, Fly By Night, which released a cast recording for its Off-Broadway run.
He received the 2012 Visionary Playwright Award from Theater Masters. Variety magazine selected Mitnick as one of "10 Screenwriters to watch" in 2013. He is a two-time winner of the Edgerton New American Foundation Award, for The Siegel (2017) and Fly By Night (2011), the latter of which was also nominated for four 2015 Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical.
In May 2017, Deadline placed Mitnick's original screenplay Some Are Born Great on its 2017 Cannes Hotlist, and he was slated to direct the film. Mitnick is reported to be writing the screenplay for a forthcoming Audrey Hepburn biopic.
