Screenwriting, and the film industry in general, has always been a male-dominated field. There have been few women who have proven to be successful in their screenwriting careers and push through boundaries. Juno’s Diablo Cody or Scandal’s Shonda Rhimes are probably familiar names, but I’ve put together a list of female screenwriters you may not know about.
Lucinda Coxon
Lucinda’s career started off in London theatre. Her first few films were not popular, but she landed a comedy in 2010, Wild Target, and a miniseries titled The Crimson Petal and the White, which was nominated for a Critics Choice Award. Released in 2016, Coxon wrote an adaptation of the novel The Danish Girl.
Meg LeFauve
Meg’s first major screen credit was co-writing Pixar’s popular animation, Inside Out. She has also worked on Pixar’s film The Good Dinosaur and is co-writing Marvel’s Captain Marvel which is set to release in 2019.
Celine Sciamma
Celine is a French screenwriter whose main focus in the films she has written has been adolescents finding themselves and developing their sexuality identity. One of her more notable films is, Tomboy, about a 10-year-old who presents as a boy after moving to a new neighborhood.
Nicole Perlman
Nicole was the first woman to write a script for a Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. She is co-writing Captain Marvel with Meg LeFauve.
Lisa Joy Nolan
Nolan’s screenwriting career started out when she was hired as a staff writer on ABC’s Pushing Daisies. She then moved onto Burn Notice and Mind Fields. Lisa teamed up with her husband, Jonathan Nolan, and wrote the HBO series Westworld and is the writer for Sony’s female-centric Spider-Man that is rumored to be released in 2017.
Vanessa Taylor
Vanessa is the writer behind the action packed film Divergent. She has also done writing for Game of Thrones and her original film Hope Springs landed her a nomination for a Golden Globe award.
Karen Croner
Karen has written comedic drama Admission starring Tina Fey and family drama One True Thing. Both films display the feminist viewpoint she possesses, as she presents the female characters with detemination. She is set to write a political thriller announced, Girl Soldier.
