Robert Illes

Robert Illes (17 May 1948; Downey, California) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, television producer, playwright and author.

Early life

Robert Illes was born in Downey, California to immigrant parents. His father Peter Illes (1920–2002) who spent some 40 years in the printing and stationery business in Los Angeles, was a native of Hungary, emigrating to central California in 1931. Mother Pauline Corne (1924- ) is a native of Norwich, England. His parents met and married during World War II in Norwich, where Peter was serving in the U. S. 8th Air Force. They moved to the Southern California area after the war, eventually settling in Los Angeles. Robert has a brother and two sisters.

Illes attended Los Angeles public schools, where he excelled in art and creative writing, graduating George Washington High School before entering the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, studying telecommunications and journalism. He worked briefly for the Daily Trojan as a reporter before becoming a comedy newscaster for KUSC-FM, then a student run radio station.