Peter Barsocchini wrote the Emmy Award-winning smash-hit Disney Channel Original Movie "High School Musical" (he says, for his tween daughter Gabriella), as well as it's sequels, High School Musical 2, the highest rated original cable telecast in history, and the worldwide box office feature-film sensation, High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

Barsocchini began his professional writing career while attending high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, writing more than 300 columns about popular music for the San Mateo Times, spending his weekends backstage at the legendary Fillmore West, covering artists such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Grateful Dead, and Elton John.

Upon graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a degree in creative writing, Barsocchini was hired by the Merv Griffin Show as an interviewer. In 1979, Barsocchini was named producer, a position he held for seven years. He won an Emmy Award twice as producer, the youngest talk-show producer ever to receive the award.

His first novel "Ghost" was published to laudatory reviews in the late 1980's with the screen rights being purchased by Paramount Pictures, beginning the transition to the film business. His action/thriller screenplay "Drop Zone" was produced by Paramount and starred Wesley Snipes.

Currently, his film projects include a musical about the fashion industry for Dream Works, a Christmas film for HBO which he is creating in collaboration with Mariah Carey, a romantic thriller feature film entitled 'Cuba and the Night" for Hannibal Films, a new young adult novel and, of course, 'High School Musical 4' for the Walt Disney Company.