I. A. L. Diamond

I. A. L. Diamond (born Ițec Domnici; June 27, 1920 – April 21, 1988) was a Romanian-born American screenwriter best known for his 30-year collaboration with director Billy Wilder, co-writing acclaimed comedies and dramas including Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960), the latter earning him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Born in Ungheni, Romania (now in Moldova), Diamond immigrated to the United States in 1929 at the age of nine with his family, settling in Brooklyn, New York, where his father worked as a grocer before changing the family surname from Domnici to Diamond. He excelled in mathematics during high school and later attended Columbia University as a math major, where he contributed to varsity stage shows and edited the student newspaper, honing his writing skills.

I. A. L. Diamond was born Ițec (also spelled Itek or Itzek) Domnici on June 27, 1920, in Ungheni, Bessarabia, a region then part of Romania and now in Moldova. He was born into a Jewish family; his parents were David Domnici, a grocer, and Elca (née Waldman) Domnici, and he had a sister.

Diamond's early life unfolded in Eastern Europe during a period of political instability and escalating antisemitism toward Jewish communities in interwar Romania, where discriminatory policies and economic hardships prompted significant emigration. His father immigrated to the United States ahead of the family, and in 1929, when Diamond was nine years old, he joined his father in Brooklyn, New York, traveling with his mother and sister. The family settled in the Crown Heights neighborhood, part of a larger wave of Jewish immigrants from Romania and Bessarabia seeking better opportunities amid regional turmoil.