The son of a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, Tony Gilroy was born in Manhattan and raised in upstate New York. But Gilroy didn't immediately follow in his father's footsteps, choosing instead to dabble in music and other types of writing.

In 1992, Gilroy sold his first script that made it to the big screen, the ice-skating romance The Cutting Edge, later graduating to more complex dramatic fare with Dolores Claiborne (1995), The Devil's Advocate (1997) and Proof of Life (2000).

After gaining notoriety for penning the scripts to the Jason Bourne trilogy (2002, 2004 and 2007), Gilroy ventured into the realm of film directing with the legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007). His first directorial effort would net Gilroy big results, garnering a pair of Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.