Many avid readers may be familiar with the blockbuster book City of Thieves by David Benioff. But did you know the author was a former English teacher? This talented educator has made his mark as a consummate novelist, screenwriter, and television producer. He is perhaps best known as the co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones.

David was born on September 25, 1970, in New York City. He is the youngest of three children of Barbara (Benioff) and Stephen Friedman, who was the senior partner and chairman of Goldman Sachs investment firm, an advisor to President George W. Bush, and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As a young boy, David gravitated to all things literary, fancying comic books and classic far-flung fantasy such as Homer’s Iliad and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. His imagination was supplemented by an affinity for playing the video game Dungeons & Dragons.

David, who changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name of Benioff while in his teens, graduated from the exclusive New York City secondary school called The Collegiate School. He then enrolled at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1992. David earned his a master’s degree at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, writing his thesis on Samual Beckett.

After he graduated form college, David worked at various jobs, including a stint as a club bouncer, a radio disc jockey, and a high school English teacher at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York, where he also served as the school’s wrestling coach.  In 1999, David returned to school, completing the requirements for a second master’s degree in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, in 1999.

While working as a high school English teacher, David wrote his first book called The 25th Hour, which earned him many accolades. He later adapted the book into a screenplay, which was made into a film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. In 2004, David then wrote a collection of short stories titled When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) and a screenplay about the Greek myth Troy which earned him $2.5 million from Warner Brothers pictures. That same year, he was hired to write the screenplay for the X-Men spin-off   X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The following year, David wrote the script for the psychological thriller Stay, which was adapted into a film directed by Marc Forster and starred Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. His 2007 screenplay for The Kite Runner, adapted from the novel of the same name, marked his second collaboration with director Marc Forster. In 2008, David’s second novel, City of Thieves, was published. He is currently working on an adapted screenplay of the Charles R. Cross biography of Kurt Cobain. He is also working with D.B. Weiss as the executive producer of Game of Thrones, HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martine’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which David read and enjoyed as a teen.

David’s work in Hollywood has earned several awards. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.