STEVE TESICH was a Serbian-American screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the movie Breaking Away. Tesich graduated from Indiana University in 1965 with a BA in Russian and went on to do graduate work at Columbia University, receiving an MA in Russian Literature in 1967. His novel Karoo was published posthumously in 1998. Arthur Miller described the novel: "Fascinating—a real satiric invention full of wise outrage.” Tesich won Best Screenplay from the National Society of Film Critics Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Oscar Academy Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, and was named the Screenwriter of the Year by the London Critics Circle Film Awards for Breaking Away.

B.A., University of Chicago; graduate study in philosophy, Stanford University. Independent theatrical director and writer. Cofounder of Mabou Mines. Staged productions at American Repertory Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, New York City Opera, Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Court Theatre, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Guthrie Theater. Andrew Mellon Cochair of Directing Program, The Juilliard School. Former artistic director, New York Shakespeare Festival; artist in residence, Court Theatre. Staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Beckett, Genet, Williams, Philip Glass, Janáˇcek, and own work. Recipient: Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, Edwin Booth Award, Rosamund Gilder Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre, and Pew Charitable Trusts National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant.