Dean Pitchford was born and raised in Hawai’i and graduated from Yale. He began his performing career off- and on-Broadway (Godspell; Pippin) before turning to songwriting, screenwriting and directing. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards (winning Best Song for “Fame,” co-written with Michael Gore), three Golden Globes (winning for “Fame”), seven Grammys and two Tonys. His songs - recorded by such artists as Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Cher, Peter Allen, LL Cool Jay, Kenny Loggins, Hugh Jackman, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler and Martina McBride - have sold over 70 million records. The musical stage adaptation (co-written with Walter Bobbie) of his original screenplay for Footloose ran for more than seven hundred performances on Broadway and is now being seen all over the world. Dean’s Young Adult novels, The Big One-Oh and Captain Nobody, have been published by Putnam/Penguin, and his performances of their audiobook recordings (released by Listening Library/Random House) were both nominated for Grammy Awards. His third novel, Nickel Bay Nick, is due in 2013.