James L. Brooks is a Jewish American director, producer and screenwriter.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York and is the son of Dorothy Helen and Edward M. Brooks. He was raised in North Bergen, New Jersey in a Jewish family.

Brooks began his television career as a writer for CBS News from 1964 to 1966. After working for the ABC television series Room 222 as executive story editor, Brooks was hired along with writing partner Allan Burns by television executive Grant Tinker to create a show that would later become The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a critical and commercial success and spawned other television shows created by Brooks and Burns such as Rhoda, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Taxi, The Associates, and Lou Grant.

In 1978, Brooks began work on feature motion films. His first project was being writer and co-producer on the film Starting Over and later wrote, produced and directed Terms of Endearment in 1983. Brooks later started his own film and television production company, Gracie Films, in 1984. Gracie Films would produce the television series The Tracey Ullman Show, The Simpsons as well as the animated series The Critic. Gracie Films' notable film productions were Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Big, Bottle Rocket and Broadcast News.

Brooks's best-known film is Terms of Endearment, for which he received three Academy Awards in 1984. For his various television shows he has been awarded nineteen Primetime Emmys. He has also won two Golden Globe Awards.

Sources: Wikipedia