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John Patrick Shanley had previously been critically lauded as an off-Broadway playwright (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Italian American Reconciliation, Four Dogs and a Bone, among many others) and as an Oscar-winning screenwriter (Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, and Olympia Dukakis). In 2004, his play Doubt received unanimous rave reviews off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club, and became Shanley's first play to transfer to Broadway. There, it swept all of that year's major awards, winning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama League Award, the Drama Desk, the Tony, and the Pulitzer. In the third decade of a highly successful career, Shanley's first Broadway play went on to a national tour and launched productions across the country and around the world.

Shanley was born and raised in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx, where Doubt is set. Educated at parochial schools by the Irish Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity, he eventually did a stint in the Marines before attending New York University and receiving his degree.

Shanley¹s long list of acclaimed plays, many of which he directed in their original productions, includes Defiance, Savage in Limbo, the dreamer examines his pillow, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Where's My Money?, Italian American Reconciliation, and Dirty Story. The latter premiered almost simultaneously with Doubt and earned him a Drama Desk nomination.

Shanley has had four original screenplays produced: Five Corners, Moonstruck (Oscar and Writers Guild Award), The January Man, and Joe Versus the Volcano which he also directed. Five Corners won the Special Jury Prize for its screenplay at the Barcelona Film Festival.