David Simon is an author, journalist, and writer-producer of television shows based on his books. He was born in Washington, D.C., graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, and then worked as a police reporter at The Baltimore Sun from 1984 to 1988. He paused to write the 1991 book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which described his life traveling with members of the Baltimore Police Department. The book won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book, and became the basis for the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer. Simon won the WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama, and the Humanitas Prize in the same category. In 1997 he co-authored, with Ed Burns, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. Simon then co-wrote and produced The Corner as a six-hour TV miniseries for HBO. The show received three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie, for Simon and David Mills. Currently he is the creator, producer, and co-writer of the TV drama series The Wire, many of whose characters and incidents also come from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. After a critically acclaimed fourth season, Simon has signed on to produce a fifth and final season of The Wire which will focus on the role of mass media in society. Simon left The Baltimore Sun in 1995 and continues to work as a freelance journalist and author, writing for The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Details magazine.