The executive producer of Sex and the City, King helped channel the neuroses of single women everywhere into a mega-hit for HBO.

A Scranton, PA native, King moved to New York as a struggling actor in the 1980s. When his acting career didn't take off, he turned to writing and decamped to LA to work on Murphy Brown and Cybill. He returned to NYC in the late 1990s when he was tapped by fellow velvet mafia member Darren Star to work as a writer on Sex and the City. When Star left SATC to pursue other projects, he left the series in King's hands, and he was responsible for writing, directing, and producing the hit series for the last few seasons.

King went on to produce the short-lived Lisa Kudrow vehicle The Comeback but quickly refocused his energies on the show that minted his career. After years of will-they-or-won't-they buzz, the long-awaited Sex and the City movie and sequel, which King wrote, directed, and co-produced, hit theaters. Although King has lent his producing prowess to CBS's 2 Broke Girls, something tells us he's anxious for more SATC in his future.

King hasn't forgotten his acting dream-he occasionally pops up in cameos, like a publicist on Curb Your Enthusiasm (he even cast himself as a mental patient in an episode of SATC, natch). [Image via Getty]