Who

The executive producer of Sex and the City, King helped channel the neuroses of single women everywhere into a mega-hit for HBO.

Backstory

Raised in an Irish Catholic home in Scranton, Pennsylvania—his mom managed a Krispy Kreme, believe it or not—King moved to New York as a struggling actor in the 1980s. When his acting career didn't take off, he turned to writing and decamped to Los Angeles to work on Murphy Brown and Cybill. He returned to NYC in the late 1990s when he was hired by Darren Star to work as a writer on Sex and the City, the show inspired by Candace Bushnell's Observer columns and book of the same name. When Star left SATC to pursue other projects, he left the series in King's hands, and he was responsible for writing, directing, and producing the hit series for the last few seasons.

After Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis departed the set of SATC in 2004, King went on to produce the short-lived Lisa Kudrow vehicle The Comeback. But while critics loved the show—Kudrow earned an Emmy nod—it didn't prove a hit with viewers and was cancelled after just one season. He later turned his attention to the stage, co-writing a one-woman play called At Least It's Pink with Ken Melman, which debuted off-Broadway in January 2007. The same year he refocused his energies on the show that minted his career. After years of will-they-or-won't-they buzz—and after Kim Cattrall held out for a better contract—the long-awaited Sex and the City movie, which King wrote, directed, and co-produced the film, finally hit theaters in 2008.

On screen

King hasn't forgotten his acting dream—he occasionally pops up in cameo roles. He appeared as an HBO publicist in Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and cast himself as a mental patient in an episode of SATC.

Personal

King is gay and single. He lives in the West Village, just a couple of blocks from Parker.