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Graham Moore
Graham Moore
	Moore in 2022
Born	October 18, 1981 (age 43); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Screenwriter, author, director
Alma mater	Columbia University
Notable works	The Sherlockian, The Imitation Game, The Last Days of Night
Children	1
Website
	mrgrahammoore.com

Graham Moore (born October 18, 1981) is an American screenwriter, author and director known for his 2010 novel The Sherlockian, as well as his screenplay for the historical film The Imitation Game,^[1] which topped the 2011 Black List for screenplays and won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (awarded February 2015).

Early life and family

Moore was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised on the city's north side.^[2] He is "the son of two lawyers who divorced and then married two other lawyers";^[3] Moore's father, Gary Moore, is an insurance defense attorney and his mother, Susan Sher (née Steiner), works for the University of Chicago. His mother was formerly the City of Chicago's chief lawyer and First Lady Michelle Obama's chief of staff.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Moore's parents divorced when he was young.^[2] Moore's stepfather is Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen.^[7] Raised Jewish,^[2] Moore graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools^[7]^[8] in 1999 and received a bachelor of arts degree in religious history in 2003 from Columbia University.

During his Academy Award acceptance speech in February 2015, Moore stated:^[9]

When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different, and I felt like I did not belong. And now I'm standing here, and so I would like this moment to be for this kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere: Yes, you do. I promise you do. Stay weird, stay different

This led viewers to believe that Graham Moore was gay and highlighted his own experience as an LGBTQ youth. Many people praised the speech on Twitter comparing it to the openly gay screenwriter Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for Milk (2008). However, Moore has clarified to reporters he is in fact straight and not gay.^[10]

The speech has since drawn criticisms for his use of the word "weird" and for misleading audiences. J. Bryan Lowder of Slate wrote, "without harping on Moore's flustered speech too much, it's worth taking a moment to explain the trouble with that equivalence more generally and to think about why gay people might be so sensitive to it—especially coming as it did from the straight writer of a film that desperately marketed itself to audiences and Academy voters as a gay political statement."^[11] Ira Maddison III of Buzzfeed sharply criticized the language and vaugeness of Moore's speech writing, "We don't need a straight, white male who wrote a straight-washed movie about Alan Turing as our savior. We need diverse women and men who are looking to the future, not people looking to past and crafting a speech that will appeal in its vagueness to anyone who's "weird.""^[12]

Moore lives in Los Angeles, California. He married a woman in 2019 and together they have a child.^[13]

Career

Moore began his writing career working with childhood friend Ben Epstein, who was attending Tisch School of the Arts in New York City.^[2] One of his earliest Hollywood jobs was on the writing staff of the short-lived television series 10 Things I Hate About You.^[14]

Moore's first book, The Sherlockian, was on the New York Times bestseller list for three weeks.^[3]

His adapted screenplay for the 2014 film The Imitation Game, based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges, topped the 2011 Black List of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood.^[15] The script earned Moore numerous nominations, including the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, and ultimately won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards (awarded February 2015).

Moore's second book, The Last Days of Night, was published by Random House on August 16, 2016. Set in 1888 New York City, the novel focuses on the heated rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse during the advent of electricity and is told through the eyes of Westinghouse's attorney, Paul Cravath.^[16] Moore has adapted the screenplay for The Last Days of Night to be directed by Oscar-nominated director of The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum.^[17] Moore will write, direct, and produce the sci-fi thriller Naked Is the Best Disguise for Studio 8.^[18]

Moore's first film as director, The Outfit, premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2022. It received positive reviews.

Novels

The Sherlockian (2010), published by Twelve^[19]
The Last Days of Night (August 16, 2016), published by Penguin Random House^[20]
The Holdout (February 18, 2020), published by Random House^[21]

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
2005	Pirates vs. Ninjas	No	Yes	Yes
2008	The Waiting Room	Yes	Yes	Yes

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer
2014	The Imitation Game	No	Yes	Yes
2022	The Outfit	Yes	Yes	No

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2011	Anthony Awards	Best First Novel	The Sherlockian	Won
2014	British Independent Film Awards	Best Screenplay	The Imitation Game	Nominated
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
2015	Golden Globe Award	Best Screenplay		Nominated
	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	AACTA International Awards	Best Screenplay		Nominated
	USC Scripter Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	British Academy Film Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Academy Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	PEN Center USA	Best Screenplay		Won
2016	The Washington Post	Notable fiction in 2016	The Last Days of Night	Nominated
2017	American Library Association	Year's best in genre fiction for adult readers	The Last Days of Night	Nominated