Graham Moore is more than just the guy who told kids to "stay weird" during the 87th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday.

Graham Moore's Moving Speech At The Academy Awards

The screenwriter took center stage during the Oscars when he won Best Adapted Screenplay for the critically acclaimed The Imitation Game. Though a relatively unknown name in the business, Moore gave perhaps the most memorable speech of the night when he opened up about his suicide attempt at the age of 16.

While the writer's speech remained open and raw, Moore told The Chicago Tribune on Monday that he'd been fantasizing about the Oscars his whole life.

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"This topic was always what I imagined talking about," he explained. "I had a moment on stage of realizing, 'Ok, I'm a writer, which means I'm not going to be on TV that often in my life. I might as well use my 45 seconds to say something meaningful."

Moore didn't know how his speech had been received after he walked off stage, but soon the writer discovered that his call for kids to "stay weird" had been one of the night's biggest moments.

"I couldn't be more proud of what he said," noted Moore's mother and Oscar night date Susan Sher. "And how he chose to use his moment in the spotlight to help people who feel that they don't fit in for whatever reason."

The 33-year-old Chicago native received his degree from Columbia University, though it would take years for him to get his first screenplay off the ground. Based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma, Moore's The Imitation Game was listed as one of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood in 2011. According to The Hollywood Reporter, however, it took another three years before the film became a reality.

Turing has always been Moore's hero, not just for what he achieved but for the struggles he faced in his daily life.

"I grappled with very severe depression when I was young," Moore told The Chicago Tribune."But I would also say this is something that has not gone away. This is something I've had to deal with every single day of my life. It's something that a lot of people deal with, but not a lot of people talk about publicly."

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