People like Nicholas Pileggi

Nicholas Pileggi (; born February 22, 1933) is an American producer, author and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the non-fiction book Wiseguy and co-writing the screenplay for Goodfellas, its 1990 film adaptation, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Pileggi was born and raised in Brooklyn, the elder son of an Italian immigrant father, Nicola ("Nick") Pileggi from Calabria and an American-born mother, Susie. He has a younger brother, Dominick. Nicola "Nick" Pileggi was a cinema musician for silent films and later owned a shoe store.

In the 1950s, he worked as a journalist for Associated Press and New York Magazine, specializing in crime reporting for more than three decades; this would provide the background upon which he later drew as a writer of factual books and fictional films related to the American Mafia.