8 Celebrities Who Write Fiction and Do It Well

The legendary actor/screenwriter/director is also well known for his short fiction, frequently published in The New Yorker and collected in Without Feathers, Side Effects, Getting Even, and Mere Anarchy. 

His ability to distinguish his films in terms of tone, subject matter, and style is equally effective in his short stories. In the past he’s garnered comparisons to SJ Perlman and James Thurber. Now, writers of short, funny, high-concept stories, like Eisenberg, are being compared to Allen.

Like Allen and Eisenberg, Martin is a comedy actor who took the book world by storm with his critically acclaimed novella, Shopgirl, which was made into a film written by and starring Martin himself. He’s since gone on to write two more novels—The Pleasure of My Company and An Object of Beauty. What may surprise readers is not the satiric comedy that marks Martin’s writing, but his ability to reach the inner melancholy of his characters, reminding us that many of our best comedians are actually quite sensitive and dark.

While best known as a performance artist, July, like many of the others on this list, epitomizes what it means to be a renaissance-person. She’s written, directed, and starred in two feature films—Me, You, and Everybody We Know and The Future. But July has also cast herself as a talented writer of fiction with two books under her belt. 

George Saunders praised her first collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You, for skipping “the quotidian, the merely real, to the essential, and [doing] so with a spirit of tenderness and wonder that is wholly unique.” Her debut novel, The First Bad Man, is garnering equally high praise.

While his character on The Sopranos was an objectively awful screenwriter, Michael Imperioli has found success in both acting and writing. Not only did his write five episodes of The Sopranos, he also wrote and directed 2008's The Hungry Ghosts and co-wrote Summer of Sam with Spike Lee.

Imperioli has also written a highly lauded novel, The Perfume Burned His Eyes. The story follows a Queens-born teen named Matthew whose mother moves them to Manhattan after the death of his father and grandfather. “A coming-of-age tale dashed with relatable angst and humor,” (Entertainment Weekly), the story stays with Matthew as he finds an unorthodox new role model, grows up and falls in love.

She was Lorelai from Gilmore Girls and now she’s also a published novelist. Her debut, Someday, Someday, Maybe is a portrait of a young woman attempting, but struggling, to make it as an actor in New York City. Graham’s is grounded in show business while also making strong observations about it, pulling from her unique well of experience.

Though he hasn’t yet published a book, he does have a story in The New Yorker. His debut fiction publication “Alan Bean Plus Four” draws on Hanks’s fascination with space and NASA, a fascination that began in childhood. Like Graham, Hanks seems a proponent of write-what-you-know. And his ethos on the subject of space, perhaps it goes without saying, is fully demonstrated by Apollo 13.

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is the title of B.J. Novak’s first collection of short stories. Well known for playing Ryan, the temp, on the American version of The Office, Novak is also an acclaimed writer of fiction (and is even the surprising author of a popular children's book called The Book With No Pictures). 

His collection contains sixty-four stories, some of which are quite short, but all of which are comedic in nature without sacrificing a deep level of pathos. Booklist calls the collection “high-concept, hilarious, and disarmingly commiserative,” adding that “his more concise stories come across as brainy comedy bits, while his sustained tales covertly encompass deep emotional and psychological dimensions.” 

He’s garnered comparisons to both Steve Martin and Woody Allen, as well as George Saunders. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Novak described the collection as “George Saunders if George Saunders wasn’t a genius,” leaving the reader to form his or her own opinion.