My favorite Screenwriters

1. Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

2. William Broyles Jr.

Writer | Apollo 13

William Broyles Jr. was born on October 8, 1944 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Apollo 13 (1995), Cast Away (2000) and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). He is married to Andrea Bettina Berndt. They have three children. He was previously married to Linda Purl and Sybil Ann ...

3. Fran Walsh

Writer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Fran Walsh is a New Zealand writer and wife of New Zealand film director Peter Jackson. She co-wrote The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which is seen by many as Jackson's magnum opus and one of the most significant film series ever made. She also wrote The Hobbit trilogy, a prequel to Jackson's ...

4. Philippa Boyens

Writer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Philippa Boyens is a New Zealand writer and producer who has co-written several of Peter Jackson's films. She co-wrote the Academy Award winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Hobbit trilogy which is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings films, The Lovely Bones, Mortal Engines, and the 2005 remake of ...

5. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

6. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

7. David Benioff

Producer | Game of Thrones

David Benioff was born on September 25, 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), The Kite Runner (2007) and 25th Hour (2002). He has been married to Amanda Peet since September 30, 2006. They have three children.

8. Carl Sagan

Writer | Contact

Astronomer, educator and author Carl Sagan was perhaps the world's greatest popularizer of science, reaching millions of people through newspapers, magazines and television broadcasts. He is well-known for his work on the PBS series Cosmos (1980), the Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning show that ...

9. David Koepp

Writer | Jurassic Park

David Koepp is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for writing Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi and Panic Room directed by David ...

10. Akiva Goldsman

Writer | A Beautiful Mind

Akiva Goldsman was born on July 7, 1962 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for A Beautiful Mind (2001), Batman & Robin (1997) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022).

11. Pete Docter

Writer | Up

Pete Docter is the Oscar®-winning director of "Monsters, Inc.," "Up," and "Inside Out," and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. He is currently directing Pixar's feature film "Soul" with producer Dana Murray, which is set to release June 19, 2020.

Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the ...

12. Andy Wolk

Writer | From the Earth to the Moon

Andy Wolk's career started in the theater in New York City. He has had plays produced as a writer and director at theaters such as Lincoln Center Institute (TWELFTH NIGHT and THE WINTER'S TALE by Shakespeare) LaMaMa, Ensemble Studio Theater and the Manhattan Theater Club where he was on staff for 5...

Writer "From the Earth to the Moon", Episode 5: "Spider"

13. Frank Darabont

Writer | The Shawshank Redemption

Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High ...

14. Matt Ross

Director | Captain Fantastic

Matt Ross was born on January 3, 1970 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Captain Fantastic (2016), American Psycho (2000) and Face/Off (1997).

15. Ted Elliott

Writer | Shrek

Ted Elliott was born on July 4, 1961 in Santa Ana, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Shrek (2001), The Lone Ranger (2013) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

16. Terry Rossio

Writer | Aladdin

Terry Rossio was born on July 2, 1960 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. He is a writer, known for Godzilla VS. Kong (2021), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Aladdin (1992), and Shrek (2001). Additional credits for Rossio include Deja Vu, G-Force, Lovestruck, The Long Ranger...

17. Alex Garland

Writer | Ex Machina

Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).

Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).

He is ...

18. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

19. Damien Chazelle

Writer | La La Land

Damien Sayre Chazelle is an American director and screenwriter. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His mother, Celia Sayre (Martin) Chazelle, is an American-Canadian writer and professor of history at The College of New Jersey. His father, Bernard Chazelle, is a French-American Eugene Higgins...

20. George Lucas

Writer | Star Wars

George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...

21. Taylor Sheridan

Writer | Hell or High Water

Taylor Sheridan is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for 'Sicario' (2015) and 'Hell or high water' (2016), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

He also starred in the FX television series 'Sons of ...

22. Jordan Peele

Writer | Nope

Jordan Peele is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director, writer, actor, producer, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions. Peele's first feature film, "Get Out," was a critically acclaimed blockbuster, recognized with four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film would earn Peele the ...

23. Greta Gerwig

Writer | Barbie

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director. She has collaborated with Noah Baumbach on several films, including Greenberg (2010), Frances Ha (2012), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Mistress America (2015). Gerwig made her solo directorial debut ...

24. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

25. Anthony McCarten

Writer | The Theory of Everything

Anthony McCarten was born on April 28, 1961 in New Plymouth, New Zealand. He is a writer and producer, known for The Theory of Everything (2014), Darkest Hour (2017) and The Two Popes (2019). He is married to Eva Maiwald. They have three children.

26. Josh Safdie

Director | Uncut Gems

Born and raised in New York City: in both Queens & Manhattan. He attended the school of Communication at Boston University. He often collaborates with his brother Benny Safdie. The brothers have both cited early experiences in front of their father's camera as the reasons for their pursing ...

and Ronald Bronstein

27. Noah Baumbach

Writer | The Squid and the Whale

Born in Brooklyn in 1969 Noah Baumbach is the son of two film critics, Georgia Brown and Jonathan Baumbach (also a writer). His studies at Vassar College were the subject of his first film (made as he was 26 years old), Kicking and Screaming (1995). His second major picture, made ten years later, ...

28. Aaron Sorkin

Writer | The West Wing

Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only a short time to ...

29. Adam McKay

Producer | Don't Look Up

Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. McKay has a comedy partnership with Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay also founded their comedy website Funny or Die through ...

30. Oliver Ziegenbalg

Writer | Russendisko

Oliver Ziegenbalg was born on September 19, 1971 in Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He is a writer and producer, known for Russendisko (2012), 25 km/h (2018) and Frau Müller muss weg! (2015).

31. Drew Goddard

Producer | The Martian

Drew Goddard was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He attended Los Alamos High School in Los Alamos, New Mexico and graduated in 1993. He then attended the University of Colorado, and worked as a production assistant in L.A. after graduation. A spec script Drew wrote based on Six Feet Under (2001) ...

32. Eric Roth

Writer | Dune

Mr. Roth won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump & has been nominated for his screenplays of The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, & Dune. He wrote Mr. Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, & Best Picture Nominee, Extremely ...

33. Stephen McFeely

Writer | Avengers: Endgame

Stephen McFeely was born on February 24, 1970 in Walnut Creek, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Avengers: Endgame (2019), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He is married to Jennifer Cotteleer.

and Christopher Markus

34. Brad Bird

Writer | The Incredibles

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in...

35. Ari Aster

Director | Hereditary

Ari Aster is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for writing and directing the A24 horror films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019). Aster was born into a Jewish family in New York City on July 15, 1986, the son of a poet mother and musician father. He has a ...

36. Steven Zaillian

Writer | Searching for Bobby Fischer

Steven Zaillian was born on January 30, 1953 in Fresno, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and The Irishman (2019). He is married to Elizabeth Zaillian. They have two children.

37. Taika Waititi

Producer | What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, hails from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of Robin (Cohen), a teacher, and Taika Waititi, an artist and farmer. His father is Maori (Te-Whanau-a-Apanui), and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish...

38. Joss Whedon

Producer | Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon is the middle of five brothers - his younger brothers are Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Both his father, Tom Whedon and his grandfather, John Whedon were successful television writers. Joss' mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher and she also wrote novels as Lee Whedon. Whedon was ...

39. Andrew Stanton

Writer | WALL·E

Andrew Stanton has been a major creative force at Pixar Animation Studios since 1990, when he became the second animator and ninth employee to join the company's elite group of computer animation pioneers. As Vice President, Creative he currently oversees all shorts and feature projects at the ...

40. Lee Unkrich

Editor | Coco

Lee Unkrich is an Academy Award-winning director at Pixar Animation Studios. He most recently directed Disney.Pixar's critically-acclaimed "Coco", which received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Best Song.

As the director of Disney.Pixar's "Toy Story 3," Lee was also awarded an ...