Chicagoan Graham Moore nominated for Oscar for 'Imitation Game'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "The Imitation Game" brings the true story of British genius Alan Turing to the big screen. Nominated for a 2015 Oscar under the Adapted Screenplay category, Graham Moore first heard Turing's story while studying at the University of Chicago Lab School.

The World War 2 hero broke Nazi intelligence codes, but Turing's story came to a tragic end when he was convicted of criminal behavior because of his sexual orientation.

"I think his life deserves to be told on screen and I'm so proud we got to be part of doing that and introducing him to an audience that might not have heard of him otherwise," Moore said.

Moore is taking his mother, Susan Sher, with him to the Oscars. Sher, who has worked at City Hall and the White House, encouraged his writing early on.

"I would sort of come home every day after school and lock myself up in my room and read lots of things and play around on my computer. And she would always be like, 'Oh, that's Graham doing whatever it is that Graham does,'" Moore said. "I think we had a nice moment where she got to come visit the set one day. She got to see some of the cast and meet them. It was the first time it felt for my family like this was a real movie. It wasn't just like me and my weird friends going off to long with a camcorder and filming some stuff."

Leonardo DiCaprio is behind Moore's next project, "Devil in the White City." Erik Larson's best-selling book combines murder, magic and madness in Chicago during the World's Fair of 1893.

"It's such a fantastic book. But it's also really daunting because you're like how could the movie ever be as good as this amazing piece of writing?" Moore said.

Moore said he's of his hometown and other Chicagoans.

"I'm very excited to see the sort of Chicagoans going off into the world and doing really good, interesting work," he said.