Born and raised in Olympia, Washington, Tab Murphy attended USC Film School and has been a working screenwriter since 1983. His major breakthrough came with a writing credit on Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Tab spent nearly ten years in the Disney machine, writing such feature length animated movies as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Tarzan (1999), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Brother Bear (2003). During that time he also wrote and directed Last of the Dogmen (1995), a western fantasy starring Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey. Tab has written several Warner Bros DC animated screenplays, including Green Arrow (2010), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010) and Batman: Year One (2011), based on the Frank Miller graphic novel. In 2010 he wrote a thriller, Dark Country (2009), that was directed by Thomas Jane (Hung (2009), The Punisher (2004)), who also starred. The movie was shot in 3-D for a division of Sony. Tab is working on numerous projects, including an animated feature to be directed by Kirk Wise and a TV pilot he recently sold. Tab divides his time between Los Angeles and the Canadian Rockies.