Stojan Steve Tesich (; September 29, 1942 – July 1, 1996) was a Serbian-American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the film Breaking Away. Tesich is also credited as the inventor of the term "post-truth". Early life Steve Tesich was born as Stojan Tešić (pronounced TESH-ich) in Užice, in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (now Serbia) on September 29, 1942. He immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister when he was 14 years old. His family settled in East Chicago, Indiana. His father died in 1962. Tesich graduated from Indiana University in 1965 with a BA in Russian. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He went on to do graduate work at Columbia University, receiving an MA in Russian Literature in 1967. After graduation, he worked as a Department of Welfare caseworker in Brooklyn, New York in 1968. Career In the 1970s, he wrote a series of plays that were staged at The American Place Theatre in New York City. The first of these plays, The Carpenters, premiered during the 1970-1971 season. Baba Goya made its debut at the theater in May 1973; the cast included Olympia Dukakis and John Randolph. Later that year, the play was staged at the Cherry Lane Theatre under a different name (Nourish the Beast). The play The Carpenters starring Vincent Gardenia and Joseph Hindy, presented on the Hollywood Television Theatre's Conflicts series, was shown on PBS on December 19, 1973 in a telecast from 8:30-9:30 PM EST. The theme of the play was the disintegration of an American family divided by the generation gap. John Randolph, Eileen Brennan, and John Beck starred in the comedy Nourish the Beast on PBS on Thursday, February 12, 1974, also presented as part of the Hollywood Television Theatre's Conflicts series. Tesich's screenplay for Breaking Away (1979) had its origins in his college years. He had been an alternate rider in 1962 for the Phi Kappa Psi team in the Little 500 bicycle race. Teammate Dave Blase rode 139 of 200 laps and was the victory rider crossing the finish line for his team. They subsequently developed a friendship. Blase became the model for the main character in Breaking Away. The film was a hit, and Tesich won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also created a short-lived TV series of the same name.