American screenwriter and director Ron Nyswaner was BOTD in 1956. Born in Clarksville, Pennsylvania, he was raised in an evangelical Christian family, discovering gay sex while attending a Youth for Christ conference in New Jersey. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh, moving New York City to study filmmaking at Columbia University. He wrote his first screenplay for the 1982 film Smithereens, leading to a steady if undistinguished career. He is best known for his screenplay for the 1994 film Philadelphia, a drama about a gay HIV+ corporate lawyer who sues his former employer for wrongful dismissal, with the help of a homophobic, ambulance-chasing litigator. Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, the film became a critical and commercial success, winning Hanks an Oscar and earning Nyswaner a nomination for his screenplay. As one of the first Hollywood studio films to directly address the HIV/AIDS crisis and homophobia, Philadelphia was extensively discussed by LGBTQ critics, many of whom critiqued the presentation of Hanks’ character as a saintly and sexless martyr. Nyswaner struggled with addictions to sex, alcohol and cocaine, experiences recounted in his 2004 memoir Blue Days, Black Nights. After achieving sobriety, he wrote the TV film Soldier’s Girl, a biopic about the relationship between murdered US soldier Barry Winchell and his trans girlfriend Calpernia Addams, and the 2006 feature film The Painted Veil, based on W. Somerset Maugham‘s novel. In 2012, he moved to Los Angeles, co-writing and producing the critically praised TV dramas Ray Donovan and Homeland. He returned to queer themes with the 2018 TV series Fellow Travellers, based on Thomas Mallon‘s novel about a 40-year affair between two closeted gay men. Starring Hollywood A-Gays Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, the series was praised for its forthright presentation of gay sexuality, earning Nyswaner a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination for his screenplay. He lives between Los Angeles and upstate New York; his current relationship status is unknown.