Female Screenwriters
by Polar-Night | created - 11 Jan 2022 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicThis is a list celebrating female screenwriters beginning from the silent movie era, following old Hollywood, and many many famous names from modern times and of course by including international movies! I'm sure you will be shocked to learn about female screenwriters you didn't know existed and who wrote the scripts for the movies you actually loved! Of course, there are more fantastic female screenwriters but I included my favourite ones. :)
1. Alice Guy
Director | The Woman of Mystery
The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion...
2. Lotte Reiniger
Director | Silhouetten
Lotte Reiniger was born on June 2, 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She was a director and writer, known for Silhouetten (1936), Der Graf von Carabas (1935) and Lotte Reiniger - The Fairy Tale Films (1961). She was married to Carl Koch. She died on June 19, 1981 in Dettenhausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
3. Thea von Harbou
Writer | Metropolis
Thea von Harbou was born on December 27, 1888 in Tauperlitz, Döhlau, Bavaria, Germany. She was a writer and director, known for Metropolis (1927), M (1931) and Woman in the Moon (1929). She was married to Fritz Lang and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. She died on July 1, 1954 in Berlin, Germany.
4. Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Writer | Ladri di biciclette
Suso Cecchi D'Amico was born on July 21, 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was a writer and actress, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Leopard (1963) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She was married to Fidele d'Amico. She died on July 31, 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
5. Lina Wertmüller
Writer | Pasqualino Settebellezze
During the 1970s, Lina Wertmüller emblazoned her name into the pantheon of Italian cinema with a series of intensely polemical, deeply controversial and wonderfully entertaining films. Among the most politically outspoken and iconoclastic members of the second generation of postwar directors - the ...
6. Jane Campion
Writer | Bright Star
Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Having graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, and a BA, with a painting major, at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, she began filmmaking in the early...
7. J.K. Rowling
Writer | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, near Bristol, a few miles south of a town called Dursley ("Harry Potter"'s Muggle-family). Her father Peter Rowling was an engineer for Rolls Royce in Bristol at this time. Her mother, Anne, was half-French and half-Scottish. They met on a train as it left King's ...
8. 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 ...
9. Laeta Kalogridis
Writer | Shutter Island
Laeta Kalogridis was born on August 30, 1965 in Winter Haven, Florida, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Shutter Island (2010), Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and Alexander (2004).
10. Deepa Mehta
Director | Fire
Deepa Mehta is a transnational artist and a screenwriter, director, and producer whose work has been called "courageous", "provocative" and "breathtaking". Her visually lush and emotionally resonating films have played at every major international film festival; receiving numerous awards and ...
11. Emerald Fennell
Writer | Saltburn
Emerald Lilly Fennell is an English actress, filmmaker, and writer. She has received many awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Fennell first ...
12. Atsuko Hirayanagi
Producer | Ô Rûshî!
Born and raised in Japan, Atsuko Hirayanagi is an award winning screenwriter and director based in San Francisco. Her debut feature Oh Lucy! was an extrapolation of her student short of the same name. The short won the Wasserman Award / first prize for a graduate film and also won more than 35 ...
13. Türkan Soray
Actress | Hayallerim, Askim ve Sen
Türkan Soray (her last name begins S-cedilla) is one of four big female stars of the old Turkish cinema.
Türkan was born to a railway-officer father and a housewife mother. She started in Turkish cinema at the age of 15, when she accompanied her friend, neighbor Emel Yildiz (also known as Panther ...
14. Ece Yörenç
Writer | Medcezir
Ece Yorenc born on October 20th, 1962, Istanbul- Turkey, attended Ankara University, Language History and Geography Faculty. Her career as a scriptwriter started in 1992.
In 2005 the Drama "Yaprak Dökümü" ('Fallen Leaves') which was a prime time Tv adaptation of a famous classical Turkish Novel, was...
15. Sarah Polley
Actress | My Life Without Me
Sarah Polley is an actress and director renowned in her native Canada for her political activism. Blessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts, Polley has become a favorite of critics for her ...
16. Andrea Arnold
Director | American Honey
Andrea Arnold was born on April 5, 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).
17. Nancy Meyers
Writer | It's Complicated
Nancy Jane Meyers is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films including Private Benjamin (1980), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The Parent ...
18. Lynne Ramsay
Director | You Were Never Really Here
Lynne Ramsay was born on December 5, 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.
19. Patty Jenkins
Director | Wonder Woman
Patty Jenkins is a writer/director best known for directing Wonder Woman, the Warner Bros./DC Comics blockbuster of 2017, and her debut feature Monster. Patty also works in television where she is best known for the pilot and finale episode of AMC's hit show The Killing.
Patty began her career as a ...
20. Nora Ephron
Writer | Julie & Julia
Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She was an acclaimed essayist (Crazy Salad 1975), novelist (Heartburn 1983), and had written screenplays for several popular films, all featuring strong female characters, such as anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood (Silkwood (1983), ...
21. Debra Granik
Director | Leave No Trace
Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an American New York City-based independent film and documentary film director and screenwriter. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and ...
22. Maria Schrader
Director | She Said
Maria Schrader was born in Hanover, Federal Republic of Germany, on September 27th, 1965. She directed and co-wrote the screenplay of the awards-winning film Liebesleben (2007). As well, she directed Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (2016) and the Emmy-award wining miniseries Unorthodox (2020) (...
23. Gauri Shinde
Director | English Vinglish
Gauri Shinde was born on July 6, 1974 in Pune, Maharashtra, India. She is a director and writer, known for English Vinglish (2012), Dear Zindagi (2016) and Chup (2022).
24. Ana Lily Amirpour
Director | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ana Lily Amirpour was born in Margate, Kent, England, UK. She is a director and writer, known for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), The Bad Batch (2016) and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2021).
25. Niki Caro
Director | Whale Rider
Niki Caro is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter, born in 1967. Caro was born in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. She was educated first at the Kadimah College in Auckland, and then the Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. The School is a private girls' school, and ranks ...
26. 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 ...
27. Reema Kagti
Writer | Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Reema Kagti is considered to be one of the best working talents in Indian cinema, with a singular voice as an artist, screenwriter, and filmmaker.
Reema's directorial debut, Honeymoon Travels Private Limited (2006), was an immediate commercial success. Following that, she wrote and directed the ...
28. Vera Chytilová
Director | O necem jiném
Vera Chytilová was born on February 2, 1929, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She studied philosophy and architecture in Brno for two years, then worked as a technical draftsman, a designer, a fashion model, a photo re-toucher, then worked as a clapper girl for Barrandov Film ...
29. Agnieszka Holland
Director | Pokot
Having graduated from FAMU in Prague film (1971), Agnieszka Holland returned to Poland and began her film career working with Krzysztof Zanussi as assistant director, and Andrzej Wajda as her mentor. Her first feature film was PROVINCIAL ACTORS (1978), one of the flagship pictures of the "cinema of...
30. Marti Noxon
Producer | Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Marti Noxon was born on August 25, 1964 in California, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), Sharp Objects (2018) and To the Bone (2017).
31. Moira Buffini
Writer | Jane Eyre
Moira Buffini was born in 1965 in Cheshire, England, UK. She is a writer and producer, known for Jane Eyre (2011), The Dig (2021) and Byzantium (2012).
32. Jane Anderson
Writer | Olive Kitteridge
Jane Anderson grew up in the Bay Area of Northern California where her father, an inventor and electronics engineer, was one of the early entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley. Passionate about the theater, Ms. Anderson dropped out of college after two years and moved to New York City to become an ...
33. Nadine Labaki
Actress | Et maintenant on va où?
Nadine Labaki was born on February 18, 1974 in Beirut, Lebanon. She is an actress and director, known for Where Do We Go Now? (2011), Capernaum (2018) and Caramel (2007). She has been married to Khaled Mouzanar since October 2007.
34. Yesim Ustaoglu
Director | Tereddüt
After making several award - winning shorts in Turkey, Yesim Ustaoglu made her feature film debut with 1994's 'The Trace' (Iz). The film was presented at numerous international festivals, including Moscow and Gotenburg and won the Best Film Award at Istanbul Film Festival. Yesim Ustaoglu received ...
35. Agnès Varda
Director | Cléo de 5 à 7
Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.
36. Chloé Zhao
Director | Nomadland
Chloé Zhao or Zhao Ting (born March 31, 1982) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Her second feature film, The Rider (2017), was critically acclaimed and received several accolades ...
37. Elaine May
Actress | Small Time Crooks
Elaine May (born under the name Elaine Iva Berlin) is an American actress, comedian, film director, playwright, and screenwriter from Philadelphia. Her professional career started in the 1950s and is still ongoing. She has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. She ...
38. Mari Okada
Writer | Sayonara no asa ni yakusoku no hana o kazarô
Mari Okada is known for Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018), Her Blue Sky (2019) and Tokyo Halloween Night (2013).
39. Anna Boden
Producer | Half Nelson
Anna Boden is an American film director, cinematographer, editor, and screenwriter best known as the co-writer of the 2006 film Half Nelson. She is known for her collaborations with fellow filmmaker Ryan Fleck. While studying film at NYU, Boden met Ryan Fleck on the set of a student film. Soon they...
40. Gülse Birsel
Writer | Aile Arasinda
Born in Istanbul in 1971, Birsel graduated from Bogazici University's Economics Division in 1994 and Columbia University's MFA program in Film Division in 1996. She began her career as a journalist then became the writer and the presenter of the TV show "gag". Afterwards she wrote and played the ...
41. Mahinur Ergun
Writer | Medcezir Manzaralari
Mahinur Ergun was born in 1956 in Bursa, Turkey. Mahinur is a writer and director, known for Medcezir Manzaralari (1989), Ay Vakti (1994) and Sasifelek Çikmazi (1996).
42. Meral Okay
Actress | Beynelmilel
Meral Okay was born on September 20, 1959 in Ankara, Turkey. She was a writer and actress, known for Beynelmilel (2006), Hiçbiryerde (2002) and Head-On (2004). She was married to Yaman Okay. She died on April 9, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.
43. Lena Waithe
Producer | Master of None
Lena Waithe was born on May 17, 1984 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Master of None (2015), Ready Player One (2018) and Queen & Slim (2019). She has been married to Alana Mayo since November 2019.
44. Kim Eun-sook
Writer | Sikeurit Gadeun
Kim Eun-sook is known for Secret Garden (2010), Descendants of the Sun (2016) and Heirs (2013).
45. Kim Eun-hee
Writer | Sigeuneol
Kim Eun-hee is known for Signal (2016), Revenant (2023) and Signal: Choki Mikaiketsu Jiken Sosahan SP (2021).
46. Emma Thompson
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...
47. Frances Marion
Writer | The Big House
The most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century, and one of the most respected scripters of any gender, Frances Marion was born in San Francisco. She modeled and acted and had some success as a commercial artist. She entered into journalism and served in Europe as a combat correspondent ...
48. Melissa Mathison
Writer | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Melissa Mathison was born on June 3, 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for E.T. (1982), The BFG (2016) and Kundun (1997). She was married to Harrison Ford. She died on November 4, 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
49. Anita Loos
Writer | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
While she is now best known for her book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," Anita Loos was one of Hollywood's foremost early screenwriters. She began writing screen scenarios for the 'Biograph Company' at an early age (though not 12, as she later claimed), and the first to be produced, The New York Hat (...
50. Jane Goldman
Producer | Kick-Ass
Jane Goldman was born on June 11, 1970 in England, UK. She is a producer and writer, known for Kick-Ass (2010), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Stardust (2007). She has been married to Jonathan Ross since August 1988. They have three children.
51. June Mathis
Writer | Greed
June Mathis was born June Beulah Hughes in 1887 in Leadville, Colorado. Her father died at a young age and her mother married William Mathis. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, which she would proudly consider her hometown for the rest of her life.
At the age of 13 she pursued a career in ...
52. Dorothy Parker
Writer | Saboteur
Dorothy Rothschild was born on August 22, 1893 into a family of comfortable financial means. Raised by her father and Stepmother after her mother's death, she was given an excellent education for the times. Highly intelligent, she pursued a career after her formal education and proved herself to be...
53. Joan Harrison
Writer | Rebecca
In 1933, she was hired to be a secretary by Alfred Hitchcock. She soon graduated to reading books and scripts, writing synopses and contributing to scripts. In 1939, she accompanied Hitchcock to Hollywood, working as his assistant and as a writer. In 1941, she was hired as a scriptwriter by MGM. In...
54. Leigh Brackett
Writer | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in 1915 in Los Angeles. She was the author of numerous short stories and books regarding science fiction and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by one of her novels that he had his secretary call in "...
55. Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Writer | Ida
Rebecca Lenkiewicz was born in 1968 in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK. She is a writer and actress, known for Ida (2013), She Said (2022) and Disobedience (2017).
56. Kelly Marcel
Writer | Saving Mr. Banks
Kelly is primarily a writer for film and television but started her career in musical theater with the UK version of "Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical".
She is a co-artistic director of "The Bad Dog Theater Company"; founded in 2010 alongside the actor Tom Hardy and fellow writer Brett C. Leonard.
She...
57. Aline Brosh McKenna
Producer | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Aline Brosh McKenna was born on August 2, 1967 in France. She is a producer and writer, known for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Your Place or Mine (2023). She is married to Will McKenna. They have two children.
58. Anna Thomas
Writer | The Haunting of M.
Anna Thomas was born on July 12, 1948 in Stuttgart, Germany. She is a writer and producer, known for The Haunting of M. (1979), El Norte (1983) and Frida (2002).
59. Margarethe von Trotta
Director | Hannah Arendt
Margarethe von Trotta was born in Berlin in 1942. In the 1960s she moved to Paris where she worked for film collectives, collaborating on scripts and co-directing short films. She also pursued an acclaimed acting career, starring in films by well known German directors such as Rainer Werner ...
60. Erin Cressida Wilson
Writer | Secretary
Erin Cressida Wilson was a Professor of Playwriting in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also is affiliated with the Department of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Wilson formerly was a professor at Brown University, and before that ...
61. Gina Prince-Bythewood
Writer | Love & Basketball
Gina Prince-Bythewood (Writer/Producer/Director) studied at UCLA Film School, where she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduate. She was a member of UCLA's track and field team, qualifying for the Pac-10 Championships...
62. Claire Denis
Director | High Life
The films of Claire Denis frequently explore the fragile connections between people and the ways in which the most seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. At the heart of Denis' cinema is a fascination with the delights and difficulties of belonging and otherness, the...
63. Isobel Lennart
Writer | Funny Girl
Isobel Lennart was born on May 18, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was a writer, known for Funny Girl (1968), Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). She was married to John Briard Harding. She died on January 25, 1971 in Hemet, California, USA.
64. 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 ...
65. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Writer | Howards End
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born on May 7, 1927 in Cologne, Germany. She was a writer, known for Howards End (1992), A Room with a View (1985) and The Remains of the Day (1993). She was married to Cyrus Jhabvala. She died on April 3, 2013 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
66. Chung Seo-kyung
Writer | Heojil kyolshim
Mainly known for her frequent collaborations with an acclaimed Korean director - Park Chan-wook, Seo-kyeong Jeong has served as the writer for Park's latest features: Lady Vengeance (2005), I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006), Thirst (2009) and The Handmaiden (2016); For: I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK...
67. Rosemary Anne Sisson
Writer | The Black Cauldron
Rosemary Anne Sisson was born on October 13, 1923 in London, England, UK. She was a writer, known for The Black Cauldron (1985), The Bretts (1987) and The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970). She died on July 28, 2017 in London, England, UK.
68. Betty Comden
Soundtrack | On the Town
Songwriter ("New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "The Party's Over", "Just in Time"), author and actress. educated at New York University with a Bachelor of Science degree. While a student, she acted with the Washington Square Players. She was a member of the Revuers, a night club act which also ...
69. Justine Triet
Director | Anatomie d'une chute
Justine Triet is a graduate from the Paris National School of Fine Arts. Since then, she has directed a couple of films dealing with the place of the individual within a group: Sur place (2007) was shot right in the middle of the 2006 student protest; Solférino (2009) was filmed during the ...
70. Celine Song
Writer | Past Lives
Celine Song was born in 1988 in South Korea. She is a writer and director, known for Past Lives (2023), The Wheel of Time (2021) and Working in the Theatre (1976). She has been married to Justin Kuritzkes since June 11, 2016.
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