Brian Helgeland (born January 17, 1961 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a movie writer and director, who graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and received his undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. After winning an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for L.A. Confidential (1997), Helgeland went on to write the Razzie-winning screenplay for The Postman (1997) - a recognition of bad movie-making. He accepted the award, however, and became only the fourth person in its history to be personally presented with the statuette.
Helgeland wrote and directed the films A Knight's Tale (2001) and The Order (2003), which both featured the same core group of actors: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, and Mark Addy. He has worked with director Clint Eastwood twice, in 2002 on Blood Work, and in 2003 on Mystic River, and has also written an as yet unproduced adaptation of Moby Dick.