The disgraced author of the, "memoir," A Million Little Pieces, Frey is perhaps best known for being pummeled by Oprah in 2006. His memoir-a graphic recounting of his addiction and subsequent recovery-garnered controversy after The Smoking Gun published an article busting the author on the veracity of his claims. In a sparkling display of Schadenfreude, America watched on with glee as Oprah (duped like the rest of us), tore him a new one on live television.

Frey was born in 1969, in Cleveland, Ohio, and later relocated to St. Joseph, Michigan with his family. He attended Denison University, and the Art Institute of Chiago before moving to LA and working in the film industry as a screenwriter, director, and producer. In ‘96 he started work on A Million Little Pieces, originally intended as a novel but later reworked as a memoir. Most of the story takes place during Frey's self described "troubled youth," and college days at Denison University. Claims of jail time, felonies, assaults, and suicides during this time were systematically shot down by the six week Smoking Gun exposée.

Frey took some much needed "me" time in the aftermath, but the fallout didn't prove fatal for his career. He signed a three-book, seven figure contract with Harper Collins. In 2008, he released Bright Shiny Morning (a novel about LA), and in 2011 The Final Testament of the Holy Bible (I mean...), both to mostly atrocious reviews.

Frey's most recent scandal involves his publishing company, Full Fathom Five, founded in 2009. The company is exclusively dedicated to cashing in on the hormone driven young-adult fiction genre (think vampires). Frey is known to troll MFA programs in New York for young writers up to the task of sating America's love and adventure-starved youth. New York Magazine featured a story in 2010 exposing his "Fiction Factory," where employees sign an absurdly limiting contract, and receive little to no recognition for work produced.

Frey is still hustling writers in New York City, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

[Image via WENN.com]