Donald Bellisario
Donald Paul Bellisario is an American television producer and screenwriter. His latest television project was NCIS with writer Don McGill. Sources reported in May 2007 that Bellisario was leaving NCIS.
Bellisario was born in Cokeburg, Pennsylvania to a Serbian mother, Dana and an Italian father, Albert Bellisario, who was born in Gamberale, Abruzzo, Italy. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1955 to 1959, attaining the rank of Sergeant and earning the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.
Bellisario earned a bachelors degree in journalism at Pennsylvania State University in 1961. In 2001 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus?the highest honor bestowed on a graduate of Penn State. In 2006, Bellisario endowed a $1 million Trustee Matching Scholarship in the Penn State College of Communications. He recalled:
Bellisario worked in advertising for fifteen years as a copywriter and a creative director. He began working in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before moving to a major agency in Dallas, Texas. From there, he made what he has described as his “big gamble”: moving to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting and production.