Alexander Dinelaris is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, playwright and producer who works across film, theatre and musical theatre.

He shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) with Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bo, along with the Golden Globe and the Critics’ Choice Award. He went on to serve as co-producer on Iñárritu’s THE REVENANT.

His new film, DIGGER, is a black comedy starring Tom Cruise, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Michael Stuhlbarg, directed by Iñárritu and released by Warner Bros. and Legendary on October 2, 2026. Dinelaris co-wrote it with Iñárritu, Giacobone and Mexican playwright Sabina Berman.

Other screen work includes CARMEN, directed by Benjamin Millepied, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and THE MEHTA BOYS. Through his New York production company Lexicon, he is writing and producing a feature adaptation of JEKYLL & HYDE, which he is also readapting for the London stage.

In theatre, he wrote the book for ON YOUR FEET!, the Broadway musical based on the lives of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, directed by Jerry Mitchell, earning an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He also wrote the book for THE BODYGUARD, which opened in the West End and has since played worldwide. His plays include RED DOG HOWLS, which premiered at New York Theatre Workshop with Kathleen Chalfant, STILL LIFE, and FOLDING THE MONSTER.

Born in Washington Heights and raised in East Rockaway, Dinelaris began his career as a playwright in New York City. He came to theatre after playing Tevye in a school production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, first studied directing, and moved to writing at the urging of his aunt, an acting teacher.

See Alexander Dinelaris in the full Storytellers directory