Bret Easton Ellis

Career overview

Bret Easton Ellis is an American author and screenwriter born on March 7, 1964, in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is recognized as one of the literary Brat Pack and a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark writing technique involves expressing extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style. His novels commonly share recurring characters.

When Ellis was 21, his first novel, the controversial bestseller Less than Zero, was published in 1985 by Simon and Schuster. His third novel, American Psycho, released in 1991, became his most successful work. Upon its release, the literary establishment widely condemned it as overly violent and misogynistic, and numerous petitions to ban the book led to Ellis being dropped by Simon and Schuster. Ellis stated that he based the character Patrick Bateman on his father, Robert Ellis, and a film of the same name was later adapted from the book.

Throughout his career, Ellis has accumulated 37 known credits in writing. He is associated with projects known in filmographies, including Glitterati, American Psycho, and Less than Zero, which is also referenced in Czech sources as Feťáci.