He graduated Union College in Schenectady, New York with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Union College in 1996.

Credits include:

All of Me, starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin (1984) - Writer In the Mood, starring Patrick Dempsey, Beverly D'Angelo and Talia Balsam (1987) - Writer / Director Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan and Burt Lancaster (1989) - Writer / Director Sneakers, starring Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix and Ben Kingsley (1992) - Co-writer / Director Freedom Song, a TNT movie about the Civil Rights movement, starring Danny Glover and Vondie Curtis-Hall (2000) - Co-Executive Producer / Co-writer / Director Band of Brothers - HBO, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (2001) - Director (Episode One) The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman (2002) - Director Field of Dreams earned nominations for the Directors Guild of America Award, the Writers Guild of America Award, and three Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay Adaptation. It has won the Christophers Award, and Premiere Magazine's Readers Poll for Best Picture of 1989.

Sneakers was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

Freedom Song won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Longform Screenplay, was nominated for two Emmy Awards, three NAACP Image Awards (including Best TV Movie), a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Sound Editors Golden Reel Award, and the Humanitas Prize. It received The Christopher Award, the San Francisco Film Society's "Golden Gate Award", and a National Association of Minorities in Communications Image Award.

For Band of Brothers, he (along with all the directors on the series) was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and won an Emmy Award for Best Directing of a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.

In 1992, he accompanied the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as an observer on relief missions to Somalia and Bosnia, for which he wrote and directed his first of five documentaries for ABC News "Nightline". The last one, Sarajevo Spring, was nominated for a national News & Documentary Emmy Award in 1997.

In 1990, he was named "Screenwriter of the Year" by the National Association of Theatre Owners, and in 1994 received the Writers Guild of America’s Valentine Davies Award for contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.

He serves on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as a Trustee of the Academy Foundation; on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America; as a member of the National Film Preservation Board; and on the Board of Overseers of the UCLA Hammer Museum.