Dan Gordon was head writer of the hit TV series Highway to Heaven; his screenwriting credits include The Hurricane, Murder in the First, Wyatt Earp, and The Celestine Prophecy. He is the author of the stage adaptations of Terms of Endearment and Rain Man; cofounder of the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking in Sedona, Arizona; and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University School of the Arts, USC School of Cinematic Arts, UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, and Tel Aviv University.