Bret Easton Ellis

Writer

Novelist Bret Easton Ellis rocketed to fame with his first book, 1985's Less Than Zero, published while Ellis was a student at Vermont's Bennington College (his fellow students included future literature stars Donna Tartt and Jonathan Lethem). The book -- and the 1987 movie version -- struck a chord with an American public ready to learn about rich and pretty drug users having sex. The publicity and hype surrounding the book put Ellis in the spotlight, and the subsequent focus on his celebrity has made it difficult for critics to separate the writer from his work. Not a prolific author, Ellis nonetheless maintains a respectable career; a new novel is still an event guaranteed to earn reviews from "is he really that good?" to "he really is that good." His other novels include The Rules of Attraction (1987), American Psycho (1990), Glamorama (1998) and Lunar Park (2005). He has also published a collection of connected stories, The Informers (1994), and a novella, Water from the Sun (2006).

Extra credit: Other films based on Ellis's books include American Psycho (2000, starring Christian Bale) and The Rules of Attraction (2002, starring James Van Der Beek)... It was reported in 2007 that Ellis was signed to develop The Canyons, a cable television soap opera.