4. Thomas McCarthy
You may recognise him as: The kind of actor who shows up for one or two episode stints around various US crime and legal dramas, in his case the likes of Law & Order (two different versions), The Practice and Ally McBeal, McCarthy is most likely to be recognised for his part in the final series of critical darling The Wire. Regarded as something of a comedown in quality over its predecessors, mainly due to the plotline that saw McCarthys unreliable journalist assisting sort -of -protagonist Detective McNulty in inventing a serial killer, The Wire Season 5 still got better reviews than most things on TV. Like real life lying journalist Stephen Glass, McCarthys Scott Templeton went from exaggerating his sources to outright plucking stories out of thin air and, in the downbeat world of The Wire, there was no comeuppance for this. The character won a Pulitzer Prize for his made up reports on the Baltimore homeless. But you may not know: Like his most noted TV character, McCarthy has also won awards for making up stories, although as a fiction writer thats somewhat more acceptable. In 2003 he won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for The Station Agent, a comedy-drama about an introverted curmudgeonly dwarf with a love of railways that McCarthy also directed. The film made a star of its lead, Peter Dinklage, who would go on to become a far bigger name in TV than McCarthy, but also opened doors for bigger writing jobs. Perhaps surprisingly his ability to write grumpy loners who want to cut themselves off from the world proved just the kind of thing that Disney and Pixar were after for their next family adventure film. Yes, McCarthy was one of the writers responsible for the tear-jerking charms of old guy and his flying house story Up. Only the second animated movie ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, it also netted McCarthy, along with fellow writers Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, an Oscar nomination for Original Screenplay. Still with Disney, McCarthy is currently writing true life Indian cricketers become baseball stars story Million Dollar Arm for Lars and the Real Girl director Craig Gillespie.