Ethan Green Hawke is a four-time Academy Award-nominated American actor, writer and film director. In 1988, Hawke was cast in a role in director Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society; the film's success was considered Hawke's breakthrough. He left school and appeared in A Midnight Clear, Alive, Reality Bites, Before Sunrise, Gattaca, The Newton Boys, Great Expectations, and many other movies. In 2001, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Training Day. Hawke directed Chelsea Walls and has written two novels, The Hottest State (in 1996) and Ash Wednesday (in 2002). In 2005, he received his first screenwriting Oscar nomination for co-writing the 2004 film, Before Sunset (a sequel to Before Sunrise). From October 2006 through May 2007, he was in The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard at Lincoln Center in New York, playing Mikhail Bakunin. For this performance, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.