The White Lotus was the big winner at Tuesday night’s Golden Globes.
And the moment that got everyone talking was when the HBO show’s lead actress, Jennifer Coolidge, made her creator Mike White cry with her heartfelt and eccentric speech.
Jennifer gushed that the writer-producer-director gave her “a fresh start” after years in supporting roles, and said Mike made her “want to live longer.”
So who’s the talent behind one of the most talked about shows in recent years?
Winner: Mike White, the man behind HBO’s smash hit The White Lotus, starring his girlfriend Jennifer Coolidge, has lent his reality TV talents to a blockbuster hit on the big screen
Creative beginnings
The 52-year-old is the son of writer, activist and clergyman James Melville “Mel” White and his ex-wife Lyla Lee Loehr.
Growing up in California, Mike says his creative parents gave him space to develop his imagination – a key starting point for his later career.
He said he was inspired by a second-grade teacher who was the mother of famous American playwright Sam Shepard, and wrote his first full-length play in his sophomore year of college.
However, it was the weather that changed the course of his career, and he quipped that after college, “I wanted to be a playwright, and then it was too cold out east, so I came back to LA and got into the wrong crowd, and I became a screenwriter.’
Tears: The White Lotus was the big winner at Tuesday night’s Golden Globes. And the moment that got everyone talking was when Jennifer made Mike cry with her speech
From Dawson’s Creek to School Of Rock
While at college, Mike met his first writing partner, Zak Penn, who found great success writing for Marvel films.
The partnership with Penn White ended after a few years, but Mike credits his boyfriend with launching him into Hollywood’s social circles.
Mike began writing screenplays for the ’90s teen hits Dawson’s Creek and Freaks and Geeks.
Career highlight: Mike’s creative childhood initially put him down the path of playwright before he was persuaded to move to LA (pictured at the Golden Globes on Tuesday)
Besides writing, he took on acting roles in his projects and admitted that early in his career he thought it would be a career path that would suit his introverted personality as he couldn’t imagine managing people on set.
After Penn, another key collaborator throughout Mike’s career was actor/writer Jack Black, whose most notable hit under their production company’s banner was Black and White School Of Rock.
In addition to writing the 2003 film, Mike starred alongside Jack as Ned Schneebly.
A TV flop
Mike had high hopes for his 2011 project with HBO, the dramatic comedy Enlightened, starring Laura Dern.
Although the show was flattered by critics, HBO canceled it after just two seasons due to low viewership.
Hollywood outrage and a loyal fanbase made Mike the poster child for the fight against the TV industry’s suits.
Partners: Mike teamed up with Jack Black to start a production company and together they wrote and produced the 2003 hit “School Of Rock” which they also starred in
For Mike, he says the cancellation prompted him to move away from his show’s heavy premise and the pressure to create a series, explaining, “It made me feel like I didn’t have the heart, a little bit in.” to go deep.”
“I figured I’d just take a few jobs and write some stuff for an assignment. I was like, OK, they need a writer for Pitch Perfect 3? I will do it.’
“I’ve written some films, some things that were important to me. But I guess I licked my wounds a bit. It’s like being in a relationship where you get burned and don’t have the courage to go through it again, so it takes some time to heal.
And the step back also allowed him to indulge his great passion – reality TV.
On screen: A TV cancellation prompted Mike to step away from writing and pursue his passion for reality shows, which appeared in the 2019 season of Survivor (pictured).
survivor
Mike has appeared alongside his father in the hit US series Survivor and in two runs of the long-running round-the-world game show The Amazing Race.
Mike says his main reason for appearing on reality shows is because he’s a die-hard fan of the often-ridiculed genre, but he also reveals his co-stars have served as inspiration for his writing.
“As a writer, firstly I spend a lot of time alone and secondly on the computer. I’ve spent a lot of time feeling like an observer of things and there are parts of me as I get older that want to participate, I don’t want to just observe,” he explained to The Genius List.
“I liked the idea of playing these games, going on an adventure and being on these shows, which I love to watch for the character study aspect, because people are so weird.”
TV star: Mike has appeared alongside his father on the US hit series Survivor and in two runs of the long-running game show The Amazing Race
hollywood friends
Mike didn’t let his Hollywood circle get in the way of his quest for fun, and revealed in an interview with The New Yorker last year that not even Jennifer Aniston could sway him from his TV adventures.
“I remember going to a party at Courteney Cox’s – I’m not really good friends with her, but I was there. And I was about to do ‘Amazing Race’. And Jennifer Aniston was there and I was so proud and excited.’
“I was like, ‘I’m going to the Amazing Race with my dad!’ I could see Jennifer Aniston’s eyes, like: Why the f**k. . . ? That’s not something anyone aspires to be a reality contestant.
However, his stint on Survivor in 2018 earned him an A-lister fan in Angeline Jolie, who showed up with her kids to the show’s wrap party after befriending Mike on the set of their Disney project The One and Only Ivan.
“The penultimate episode I was in, I had a party at my house,” Mike recalls. “And, you know, it was the best night of my life… I had childhood friends there. I had the ‘Survivor’ contestants there. And then I had people like Diane Keaton and Angelina Jolie!’
“I thought, ‘This is the best. So, you know, maybe they think I’m crazy. When I was doing these shows I thought I’m not going to let the loss of credibility of some swanky person or critic or whatever stop me from having this experience.
Old buddies: Mike and his White Lotus lead Jennifer met while playing a couple in 2009’s Gentlemen Broncos
Jennifer and the White Lotus
When the 2020 global pandemic hit, Mike felt stagnant.
He received an email from HBO and his renowned ability to quickly take a project from the desk to the screen put him on the path to The White Lotus.
HBO needed to fill a content gap, and fast. Mike saw it as an opportunity to fire all guns after his experience of enlightenment.
“It’s going to be like a boulder they can’t stop. I can do exactly what I want,” he recalled to The New Yorker.
Hit: When the 2020 global pandemic hit, Mike was feeling stagnant. But when he received an email from HBO, his well-known ability to quickly take a project from the writing room to the big screen put him on the path to The White Lotus
Mike starred in the first season of “The White Lotus” on his beloved Hawaii, where he vacationed as a child and where he now owns a home, and cast his girlfriend Jennifer, who had previously starred in a pilot of his, which was broadcast by a network was rejected after another .
The pair had met while playing a couple in 2009’s Gentlemen Broncos, and Jennifer recalls dating him for life on a safari vacation in Africa, admitting he saw an “unedited” version of her would have.
“Mike discovered on that trip that I was kind of sad that I wasn’t in a relationship and he saw me watching those wedding videos on my iPhone in the middle of the night,” she revealed, most likely delivering that night Inspiration for her White Lotus character.
Star: The first season was the most honored series at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, while at this week’s Golden Globes the second series brought in a gong for Coolidge
The black comedy premiered in July 2021 to huge success and ratings, leading to a second season based in Sicily that was released last year and the recent recording of a third run.
The first season was the most honored series at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 10 awards, while the second season won Coolidge and Best Anthology Series or Movie at this week’s Golden Globes.
Jennifer made Mike cry with her eccentric speech as she picked up her very first Golden Globe and told him:
“Mike White, you gave me hope – you gave me a fresh start. Even if this is the end, you changed my life in a million different ways.
Hold on: Jennifer brought Mike to tears with her eccentric speech as she picked up her first-ever Golden Globe, telling him, “Mike White, you gave me hope.”