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Robin Swicord
Robin Stender Swicord (born October 23, 1952) is an American screenwriter, film director, and playwright, best known for literary adaptations. Her notable screenplays include Little Women (1994), Matilda (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the latter of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. She wrote and directed the 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club.
Swicord is the wife of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, and the mother of actresses Zoe Kazan and Maya Kazan. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors.
Swicord was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of Jean Carroll Swicord (née Stender) and businessman Henry "Hank" Grady Swicord II. Swicord's father was in the military, so the family moved often and she spent a large part of her childhood in Barcelona, Spain, until eventually settling in Florida. She has a brother, Steven Swicord.[citation needed]
Swicord said she always wrote as a child, and that later as she continued writing in college, became interested in screenplays because they were visual in nature.
She graduated from Florida State University, where she double-majored in English and Theater, with an emphasis on stagecraft. While at Florida State, Swicord worked as a photographer at the school newspaper, Florida Flambeau.
After college, while still in northwest Florida, Swicord made short films, eventually getting work as an industrial filmmaker in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. IBM liked her work so much that they recommended Swicord for a job at their advertising agency in New York City where she worked as a copywriter.
With fellow alumni of Florida State University who were starting a theater company, Swicord wrote and helped produce two plays. An agent named Merrily Kane who saw one of the plays asked Swicord if she had considered writing for film. Swicord gave her a script called Stock Cars for Christ, which was sold to MGM, a job that required that she move to Los Angeles. Although the project was never produced, at MGM she was mentored by Lynn Arost, an MGM development executive who Swicord said gave her the experience and time during which she taught herself the craft of rewriting scripts. Another early mentor was Susan Froemke, an editor who often worked with the Maysles Brothers.
Her directorial debut was the 1993 short film The Red Coat, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film was about her grandmother and starred Theresa Wright and Bridget Fonda.
Robin Swicord
Robin Stender Swicord (born October 23, 1952) is an American screenwriter, film director, and playwright, best known for literary adaptations. Her notable screenplays include Little Women (1994), Matilda (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the latter of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. She wrote and directed the 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club.
Swicord is the wife of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, and the mother of actresses Zoe Kazan and Maya Kazan. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors.
Swicord was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of Jean Carroll Swicord (née Stender) and businessman Henry "Hank" Grady Swicord II. Swicord's father was in the military, so the family moved often and she spent a large part of her childhood in Barcelona, Spain, until eventually settling in Florida. She has a brother, Steven Swicord.[citation needed]
Swicord said she always wrote as a child, and that later as she continued writing in college, became interested in screenplays because they were visual in nature.
She graduated from Florida State University, where she double-majored in English and Theater, with an emphasis on stagecraft. While at Florida State, Swicord worked as a photographer at the school newspaper, Florida Flambeau.
After college, while still in northwest Florida, Swicord made short films, eventually getting work as an industrial filmmaker in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. IBM liked her work so much that they recommended Swicord for a job at their advertising agency in New York City where she worked as a copywriter.
With fellow alumni of Florida State University who were starting a theater company, Swicord wrote and helped produce two plays. An agent named Merrily Kane who saw one of the plays asked Swicord if she had considered writing for film. Swicord gave her a script called Stock Cars for Christ, which was sold to MGM, a job that required that she move to Los Angeles. Although the project was never produced, at MGM she was mentored by Lynn Arost, an MGM development executive who Swicord said gave her the experience and time during which she taught herself the craft of rewriting scripts. Another early mentor was Susan Froemke, an editor who often worked with the Maysles Brothers.
Her directorial debut was the 1993 short film The Red Coat, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film was about her grandmother and starred Theresa Wright and Bridget Fonda.