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42-419: Warren Donald Leight ( / l aɪ t / ; born January 17, 1957) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and television producer. He is best known for his work on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lights Out and as the showrunner for In Treatment and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit . His play Side Man was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama . Warren Leight

84-481: A Master of Fine Arts degree in 1994. Crudup began acting in films such as 1996's Sleepers , 1997's Inventing the Abbotts , and 1998's Without Limits , where he played the role of running legend and Olympian Steve Prefontaine . His first role in an animated feature was in 1999's English release of Princess Mononoke , in which he starred as Ashitaka. He then played lead guitarist Russell Hammond from Stillwater,

126-772: A Play for his role in the Broadway revival of Arcadia . In August 2013, he co-starred with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in the Harold Pinter play No Man's Land as well as in Waiting for Godot at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre . The shows transferred to The Cort Theatre in New York City, where they ran in repertory until March 2014. In November 2017, he starred in the world premiere of David Cale 's one-man play Harry Clarke at Vineyard Theatre . It moved to

168-512: A break, having run the show during the COVID-19 pandemic . Lights Out (2011 TV series) An aging, former world heavyweight champion, Patrick "Lights" Leary is an extremely proud, good-hearted Irish American who is struggling to find his identity after retiring from his beloved boxing. After years of wear and tear in the ring, he is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia (a neurological disorder that affects boxers who suffered too many hits to

210-470: A certain level of quality which I think is why the shows sustained in reruns so well. And I'd like to believe there's room for another generation in some way." In 2015, he signed an overall deal with Sony Pictures TV. In May 2016, Leight left as SVU showrunner to develop new television ideas for Sony. In April 2019, Leight announced he was returning to SVU as executive producer/showrunner. His second term would run from seasons 21 to 23, stepping down to take

252-453: A different network? Probably. Or with a different lead-in? Probably." In October 2012, Leight said of the future of the Law & Order franchise – which currently consisted of just Law & Order: SVU – "( Dick Wolf and I) sometimes talk in general terms of where (the franchise) could go. I'm curious to see if there's another iteration somewhere down the line," he says. "We try hard to maintain

294-410: A good run." Ratings "roller-coastered" in season 13, from its lead-in at the time, Rock Center with Brian Williams with competition from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS and Revenge on ABC. "I get so tired of people saying that the show is down from Meloni," Leight says. "From the point of view of scripted hour-longs, we're performing very strongly for NBC. Would we perform differently for

336-421: A new job. I have to hope that ... the changes being made this year lead to another five years for this show. And clearly, this summer made the case for why this show needs to be on the air. It felt like every week there was a story about powerful men behaving badly or strange goings on. In New York, the number of murders is down 75 percent from its peak, but that's not the case with this kind of crime at all. We have

378-410: A sucker punch of downbeat realism as Leary takes a pounding from life but refuses to give up. McCallany brings such a weary dignity to the role you can't help but root for him." He went on to say " Lights Out has its work cut out for it to find and hold an audience and deliver the proverbial TKO, but on the basis of the work alone, it's a triumph." The New York Times review said "In other words, even

420-433: A wall in the writers' room that has 50 New York Post headlines on it from the summer. It's not like the show's original conceit doesn't make sense anymore." Leight noted that his biggest goal for season 13 is "First of all, survive. Survive the transition and make a compelling case for why people should continue to watch the show and come back to the show. That's on a business level. On a thematic level, we want to explore

462-406: Is Olivia. I think in the old days of Law & Order , you'd rip a limb off, attach a new limb, and go back and pitch. Rub some dirt in the wound and go out there. We're trying to do that a little. To my mind and to Mariska's mind, [Stabler's exit] will be playing out over several episodes — sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in overt ways." When Leight was asked how he felt running what was then

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504-484: Is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard 's play The Coast of Utopia in 2007. He has also starred in the streaming television series Gypsy (2017), and The Morning Show (2019–present), which earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Critics' Choice Television Awards , and Hello Tomorrow! (2023). In June 2023, he married British actress Naomi Watts . Crudup

546-559: The Lincoln Center Theater production of Tom Stoppard 's Arcadia . Crudup received a 2002 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as the title character in The Elephant Man on Broadway, as well as a 2005 nomination for his role as Katurian in the Broadway production of The Pillowman , also starring Jeff Goldblum , which closed on September 18, 2005. From October 2006 through May 2007, he

588-536: The Ma-Yi Theater Company at The Culture Project 45 Bleecker Theatre, on September 17, 1995, in previews. Directed by Loy Arcenas, the cast included Laura Kai Chen, Ron Domingo, Wai Ching Ho , Francis Jue, Karen Tsen Lee, Abby Royle, Ean Sheehy and Henry Yuk. The play was inspired by Leight's experiences teaching English in Guangdong (Canton), China. He received a nomination for the 2006 Drama Desk Award, Play, for

630-480: The Minetta Lane Theatre the following spring. From 1998 to 2005, Crudup was the narrator for the U.S. television ad campaign "Priceless" for Mastercard . In the ads, the narrator (Crudup) lists the prices of two goods or services, then lists some third, intangible benefit gained from those purchases and concludes, "priceless". He said in 2005 that appearing in the ads "changed my life", in that they gave him

672-757: The Top of the Gate in Greenwich Village starting on May 13, 1985. The musical transferred uptown to the Latin Quarter on October 23, 1985, running to January 5, 1986, for another 70 performances. He received a 1986 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book. Stray Cats is a "collection of musically influenced monologues" about men, called "cats". Stray Cats was presented by All Season Theatre Group (New York City) on May 14, 1998, directed by Kevin Confoy. The first production

714-577: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he received an undergraduate degree, and he continued his passion for acting with the undergraduate acting company, LAB! Theatre. He also acted for UNC-STV's most popular show, General College. He was a member of the Beta Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon . He then studied at New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts graduate acting program, where he earned

756-656: The "High Heeled Women," which included actress Arleen Sorkin , who performed in cabarets in New York City. He is married to Karen Hauser, who created the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB.com) and serves as Research Director for the Broadway League. They live in New York City with their two daughters. For his first stage project, Leight teamed with composer-lyricist Charles Strouse on the musical Mayor , inspired by Ed Koch and his dealings with Leona Helmsley and Bess Myerson . It ran for 185 performances at

798-458: The "revamped" series, " SVU 2.0 ". Mariska Hargitay took over the series as lead, due to Christopher Meloni 's abrupt departure. In an interview with TV Guide Leight noted "I'm aware of how successful and well-liked this show is. I'm just trying to figure out how you rejuvenate it after 12 years." Leight joined SVU over choosing to launch a new show. Regarding Meloni's character's departure, he noted "the character most affected by his departure

840-458: The 10th-season episode " Trophy Wine ", which was the only episode of the season not to be inspired by a real life, true event. Before production on the 13th season of Law & Order: SVU , NBC President Bob Greenblatt sought Leight to "reset the tone" of the show from its prior seasons, while having the storylines "still be compelling but a little more grounded". Greenblatt and Leight, along with other SVU cast and crew members, began calling

882-573: The Off-Broadway production. His play James and Annie premiered at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in March 2003. The play involves an "interracial love affair". Leight ventured into television as a freelance writer for 100 Centre Street in 2002. On a suggestion from playwright Theresa Rebeck , Law & Order: Criminal Intent executive producer René Balcer hired Leight to join the staff of

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924-453: The brutal and demeaning job of debt collector for a local racketeer ; or, launch a long shot, health-risking, comeback for the huge payday that would result from becoming "the champ" once again. Lights Out has received positive reviews from television critics. Review aggregate Metacritic awarded the series a score of 79%, based on 25 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Matt Roush from TV Guide said " Lights Out delivers

966-562: The fictional band at the center of Cameron Crowe 's Almost Famous (2000). In 2006's The Good Shepherd , he played British spy Arch Cummings, a stand-in for Kim Philby . The same year, he played a supporting role in Mission: Impossible III . In 2007, he played the leading role of Henry Roth in the film Dedication . Crudup completed filming Watchmen with director Zack Snyder in Vancouver, British Columbia . He portrayed

1008-611: The financial freedom to pursue the acting work that he wanted to do. He appeared as Zartan in the 2009 parody video The Ballad of G.I. Joe on the website Funny or Die . From 1996 to November 2003, Crudup was in a relationship with actress Mary-Louise Parker . She was seven months pregnant with their son, William Atticus Parker , born in January 2004, when Crudup ended their relationship and began dating actress Claire Danes . Crudup and Danes separated in 2006. In 2017, Crudup began dating British/Australian actress Naomi Watts , after

1050-581: The genre cliches of the boxing drama. And the acting is strong where it matters." Dorothy Rabinowitz from The Wall Street Journal said in her review "It's quickly clear that this skillfully sustained, sharply plotted series is a fighter saga you'll want to follow to the final bell." Ed Bark from Uncle Barky said "It sometimes lapses into the abundant cliches of its genre. Pound for pound, though, you won't see many better dramas this season. Gloves on or off, it keeps scoring points." Lights Out drew 1.5 million viewers in its pilot episode—793,000 of them from

1092-467: The gray of all of this. And to explore the psyches of victims and perps a little bit more and the effect this work takes on the people who do it. When a cop tells me about a real-life interrogation he did, I'm on the edge of my chair. That's where we want to be." Prior to SVU being renewed for a 14th season , Leight said to TV Guide , "I don't want it to be a victory lap, I want it to be 14 years down, seven to go, as opposed to 14 years down and it's been

1134-474: The head, gradually causing memory loss and constant headaches). Now, Lights is struggling to support his family (a wife and three daughters) and their comfortably secure lifestyle in Bayonne, New Jersey , after his amoral and incompetent brother/business manager squanders Lights' life savings. Running out of ways—and time—to earn enough money to re-secure his family's future, Leary must decide whether to either: accept

1176-821: The highly sought-after 18- to 49-year-old demographic. Viewership declined from there, however, with the series averaging 863,000 viewers per episode. Lights Out was cancelled by FX on March 24. Billy Crudup William Gaither Crudup ( / ˈ k r uː d ə p / ; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in Jesus' Son (1999). He went on to star in numerous high-profile films, including Almost Famous (2000), Big Fish (2003), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Watchmen (2009), Public Enemies (2009), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), Jackie (2016), and Alien: Covenant (2017), in both lead and supporting roles. Crudup

1218-486: The last remaining Law & Order series , he responded, "It's a storied franchise, and I don't want to go down with the last ship. I'd rather this be the turning point or a regeneration of the franchise. It was made clear to me that — and this was before Chris had left — if the show kept going the way it was going, at most it had two years left. Probably just one. If you keep doing everything you've been doing, you'll be gone. That's an interesting message to get when you take

1260-482: The series in its second season as a writer/producer. His colleagues included a reference to Leight's play Side Man ; in a third-season episode, " Shrink-Wrapped "; a bickering couple argues about the motivations of the married couple in the play. Upon a recommendation from Balcer, Leight was named the show's executive producer and head writer in 2006 when Balcer left the show at the end of the fifth season. In 2008, he left Criminal Intent after its seventh season to be

1302-468: The show a clear winner on points. And that's no bull." James Poniewozik from Time said "It starts and finishes strong, and in between, it passed the most important test this non-boxing-fan could hold it to: when I finished one episode, I immediately wanted to put another in." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe said "The story of Patrick 'Lights' Leary is engrossing from the first bell, with nicely developed plots and psychological twists that transcend

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1344-440: The showrunner for HBO's series In Treatment , a year after CI moved to cable. In July 2009, it was announced that Leight had joined FX's new drama Lights Out . On April 11, 2011, Variety reported that Leight would serve as showrunner for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit starting with the thirteenth season . Prior to Leight joining SVU , he wrote one of the final episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent ,

1386-461: The soapier subplots of Lights Out are sparingly written and tautly filmed, and the story never strays too far from the violence that is at its core. It's an ambitious drama that doesn't lose sight of what Patrick tells a television interviewer about retirement: 'Sometimes, you miss hitting people.'" Brian Lowry at Variety said in his review " Lights Out isn't an unqualified knockout, but in its milieu, leading man and rich supporting players, score

1428-549: The superhero Doctor Manhattan . He portrayed former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner in a TV film about 2008's financial crisis, Too Big to Fail (2011). Crudup stars in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show , for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2020 and 2024 and a Critics' Choice Television Award in 2020 and 2023. A year after graduating from Tisch, Crudup made his debut on Broadway in

1470-529: The voice of "Terrible Teddy"), the indie Stuck on You! (1983), and the Miramax film The Night We Never Met (1993), which he also directed, starring Matthew Broderick , and which earned him a nomination at the Deauville Film Festival . He wrote the screenplay for the 1996 Greg Kinnear comedy Dear God . In the 1980s, he was the creative director/writer for a quartet of "witty" female comics known as

1512-626: Was William Cotter "Billy" Gaither, Jr., a well-known Florida trial lawyer, and his maternal grandmother later remarried to Episcopal bishop James Duncan . The middle-born of three brothers, Crudup's brothers, Tommy and Brooks, are both producers. He left New York with his family when he was about eight years old, first living in Texas, then in Florida. He graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1986. Crudup attended

1554-581: Was a cellist. He was raised in the Sunnyside section of the borough of Queens and the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Leight received a B.S. degree in communication from Stanford University in 1977, planning a career as a journalist. Leight began his writing career with the 1980 horror film Mother's Day , followed by the documentary Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982) (as

1596-590: Was at Naked Angels (New York City) with the collaboration of Jo Bonney and others. Leight's 1998 play Side Man won him the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play and nominations for both the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It starred Edie Falco and Frank Wood. In 2001, his play Glimmer, Glimmer & Shine was produced by the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. It

1638-525: Was born in Manhasset, New York . His parents, Georgann (née Gaither) and Thomas Henry Crudup III divorced during his childhood, and later remarried, before divorcing a second time. Crudup has spoken of his late father, who died in 2005, as an "incessant gambler and hustler salesman" who continuously sought "to hit the jackpot" throughout his life. On his father's side, he is a descendant of Congressman Josiah Crudup of North Carolina. His maternal grandfather

1680-468: Was born to jazz trumpeter Don Leight (1923–2004), and his wife, Timmy, the second of two children. Both Warren and his older sister, Jody (b. 1955), grew up with financial trouble and around clubs. In the 1950s, his father played with jazz musicians such as Claude Thornhill , Woody Herman and Buddy Rich . Leight's uncle, Larry, and paternal great-grandfather, Harry Gurovitch, were also trumpet players of Russian descent. His grandmother, Sarah Gurowitsch ,

1722-463: Was featured in the first two parts of The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard at Lincoln Center , playing literary critic Vissarion Belinsky , for which he received a 2007 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play . He starred in The Metal Children , an off-Broadway play written and directed by Adam Rapp in 2010. In 2011, Crudup received a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in

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1764-788: Was produced Off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club from May 24, 2001, to July 8, 2001. John Spencer appeared in both productions, directed by Evan Yionoulis. He contributed works to The 24 Hour Plays, a unique theatrical event in which several short plays are written, rehearsed, directed, and performed within 24 hours, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 ( Daily Bread starring Billy Crudup , Rosie Perez and Rachel Dratch ). No Foreigners Beyond This Point had its world premiere at Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland in November 2002, directed by Tim Vasen. The play opened Off-Broadway, produced by

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