Eli Attie

Eli Attie is a writer, producer, and former political operative. He served as Vice President Al Gore's chief speechwriter from 1997 until Gore's concession of the 2000 election, and before that was a special assistant to President Bill Clinton.

Attie is currently a writer and co-executive producer of Fox-TV's House.

He previously worked as a writer on the NBC-TV series The West Wing for most of its run; according to the IMDb, he was credited or jointly credited as a writer of 21 episodes, and served as a producer and supervising producer in the show's later seasons. [1]

A number of that show's story lines came from Attie's own experiences working in politics and in the White House. According to David Remnick's biography of Barack Obama, "The Bridge," and other news sources, Attie used then-State Senator Obama as a model for the character of Matt Santos, a presidential candidate played by actor Jimmy Smits in the final two seasons of The West Wing. [2] [3] Together with John Wells, Attie was nominated for Writers Guild and Humanitas awards for the episode "Election Day: Part 2," in which Santos wins the presidency. Attie is a seven-time Emmy nominee; he shared a 2002 Emmy Award for "The West Wing Documentary Special." [4]

Attie's screenplay "Smile Relax Attack" was included on the 2009 Black List, a industry list of top still-unproduced screenplays. [5]

Attie has worked as a rock critic for The Washington Post and other publications. The IMDb states that Attie won ASCAP's Deems-Taylor award for pop music writing in 2003. [6]

Attie is originally from New York City and is a graduate of Hunter College High School and Harvard College.