In various chatrooms & message boards across the Internet, he is known as "The Creator"... Not only does he produce & write almost every single episode of this whole razz-ma-tazz known as "Ally", he also manages to do the same with ABC's "The Practice" and keep an eye on "Chicago Hope" in the meantime. Remember "Picket Fences" & "L.A. Law"? Uh-huh, also his creations. Soooo, who's the genius behind all of this?

David E. Kelley was born in 1956 in Maine (you do the math concerning how old he is). As a kid, he didn't write much, though teachers complimented him on his "excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses". When it came time to choose a career, his mind was set on (surprise!) law. After graduating from Princeton, he turned to Boston University's Law School; After that, he joined a prestigious and well-paying Boston Law Firm, and everything seemed perfect.
Except for one small problem.
He was bored. There was nothing interesting for him at the firm. He forced himself through several long years of being a very bored lawyer, and in his spare time he wrote scripts & screenplays. He was finally noticed by Steven Bochco, who at the time basically controlled TV. If Bochco liked you, you have a great career. If not, you're dead. Kelley fell into the first group, and Bochco asked him to write for "L.A. Law". After the series got tons of great reviews, Kelley decided to drop his job and move west - and was also picked by Bochco to be the new executive producer in 1989. Kelley left in 92, and, after several seasons of fame, "Law" began to go downhill. By the time it was dropped, he was safely working on other projects.
Back in '89, Kelley began working on "Doogie Howser, MD", which ran until '93 - and again, Kelley got out safely while the ratings were still good.

Besides a great reputation & career, Kelley had an even better personal life - on November 13, 1993, Kelley wed big-screen star Michelle Pfeiffer to the envy of all men in America.
There was still one thing David wanted, though, despite having seemingly everything. He wanted his own show.
First came "Picket Fences", a great critically-acclaimed series that flopped ratings-wise, and was dropped after several seasons. While still on-air, though, David did a crossover episode between it and his new brainchild - "Chicago Hope". "Hope" lived while "Fences" were dropped, and this wasn't enough for David.
After writing several movies (including screen adaptions of plays such as "To Gillian on her 37th Birthday") which got good but not great reviews, David *still* wanted more. Along came "The Practice", which was immediately picked up by ABC, and then of course "Ally McBeal", which was created to draw viewers of the timeslot-neighbouring "Melrose Place" in for another hour. The target audience were young women 18 to 34 years of age, though as David soon found out many teens as well as middle-aged people were also drawn in. Even guys - who now make up a big part of the show's audience - would sometimes flip the channel from "Monday Night Football" to see what Ally was up to that week.
So, with two very well-recieved shows & several Emmys, David finally settled down. Not quite, though. He's also the creator of the upcoming FOX series "Boston Public", scheduled to air the day "Ally"'s fourth season starts.
Currently, David lives with Michelle & their two kids (Claudia & John - adopted and biological, respectively) in California.



See bios: Calista Flockhart -- Gil Bellows -- Courtney Thorne-Smith -- Peter MacNicol -- Portia de Rossia -- Lucy Liu -- Greg Germann -- Lisa Nicole Carson -- Jane Krakowski -- Vonda Shepard