Terry Rossio (born July 2, 1960) is an American screenwriter.
Rossio was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating from Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, California, he went on to study at California State University, Fullerton where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Communications, with an emphasis in radio, television and film. He is the founder of Wordplay a.k.a. Wordplayer.com, one of the premier screenwriting sites on the Internet.
Along with his writing partner Ted Elliott, Rossio has written some of the most successful American films of the past 15 years, including Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Shrek. He is the second most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of domestic box office receipts with totals at around $2.5 billion.
As quoted in the India Times, Deadline Hollywood and other sources, "'Pirates of the Caribbean' writer Terry Rossio has been sued by his former agent for pending commission payment of over two years. Dodie Herskovitz, of Dodie Gold Management, filed a complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court and claimed the screenwriter has not paid her “certain revenues” she is owed under their contract, said The Hollywood Reporter. Herskovitz said she became Rossio’s manager in February 2002, and their contract entitled her to 10 per cent of gross revenues and other amounts earned from entertainment industry work negotiated by her firm. Rossio, however, ended their contract in March 2013. The former manager claims she managed the writer while he signed to write (with Ted Elliott) instalments of “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga, apart from “The Lone Ranger”, “Deja Vu” and upcoming projects “Lightspeed” and “Instant Karma.”
I did only nice things
And I only hoped to do nice things for ever more
And I knew
Or I thought I knew
Because I knew all the things I ever had to know
And I was full well satisfied
I was always true
I was always true, to myself I was never false
I believed
At least I thought I did
To believe Belief was all the reason for my life,
And I was full well satisfied
But it turned upside down
All my pious expectation was to prove me wrong
I was out
I was out not in
I went down not up and found it classified as sin
That I was too well satisfied
Now I'm living it down
And it's got me all depressed to think I got it wrong
I had made the grade
Or I thought I had
When I thought I had it made
The judgement brought me down