<i>Alan Ball: Conversations</i> features interviews that span Alan Ball's entire career and include detailed observations and insights into his Academy Award-winning film <i>American Beauty</i> and Emmy Award-winning television shows <i>Six Feet Under</i> and <i>True Blood</i>. Ball began his career as a playwright in New York, and his work soon caught the attention of Hollywood television producers. After writing for the sitcoms <i>Grace Under Fire</i> and <i>Cybill</i>, Ball turned his attention to the screenplay that would become <i>American Beauty</i>. The critical success of this film opened up exciting possibilities for him in the realm of television. He created the critically acclaimed show <i>Six Feet Under</i>, and after the series finale, he decided to explore the issue of American bigotry toward the Middle East in his 2007 play <i>All That I Will Ever Be</i> and the film <i>Towelhead</i>, which he adapted and directed in the same year. Ball returned to television once again with the series <i>True Blood</i>--an adaptation of the humorous, entertaining, and erotic world of Charlaine Harris's vampire novels. In 2012 Ball announced that he would step down as executive producer of <i>True Blood</i>, in part, to produce both a new television series and his screenplay, <i>What's the Matter with Margie?</i>