Marielle Heller
| Marielle Heller | |
|---|---|
 Marielle Heller at Sundance 2015 Awards | |
| Born |
October 1, 1979 (age 37) California, United States |
Marielle Heller (born October 1, 1979) is an American writer, director and actor.[1] She has received attention as the writer and director of the feature film The Diary of a Teenage Girl starring Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig and Christopher Meloni.
Personal life
Heller was born in California. She studied theatre at UCLA and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[2] Additionally, she was honored with the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship, and The Maryland Film Festival Fellowship.[3]
She is married to entertainer Jorma Taccone.[4]
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is Heller's debut film, that she both wrote and directed, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015. The film later received a limited release in August 2015. It is based on the 2002 graphic novel titled The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner.[5] The film stars Bel Powley as Minnie, a 15 year-old girl living in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 who begins an affair with her mother's 35 year-old boyfriend Monroe.
Before adapting the graphic novel to a film script, Heller had adapted the novel into an off-broadway play.[4] She was selected as a 2012 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and 2012 Sundance Directing Fellow,[6] where she had submitted the script for the Sundance writer and director workshop. She then proceeded to direct a teaser for the film using grant money from the writer's workshop. The film received critical acclaim at Sundance, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. The film also won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.
Heller states that she was interested in first turning the novel into a play and later a film because the character of Minnie is a young woman who is confident in her sexuality, and that Heller wanted to portray her because of a lack of films in which young women are represented in such a way.[4]
Other projects
Heller's writing credits include pilots for ABC and 20th Century Fox, and multiple screenplays and theatrical plays, including a pilot for ABC's The Big Apple and a movie for Disney, titled Renegade X. [2]
She would next direct Can You Ever Forgive Me? from a script by Nicole Holofcener, based on the Lee Israel's memoir of same name, starring Melissa McCarthy.[7]
Filmography
| Title | Year | Type | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| White Power | 2001 | TV short | Actress |
| Spin City | 2002 | TV series | Actress, as Carrie |
| The Liberation of Everyday Life | 2004 | Short | Actress, as Flora |
| Awesometown | 2005 | TV short | Actress, as Waitress |
| All-For-Nots | 2008 | TV series | Actress, as Heather |
| Single Dads | 2009 | TV series | Actress, as Jill |
| MacGruber | 2010 | Film | Actress, as Clocky |
| Paper Anchor | 2013 | Film | Actress, as Caroline |
| A Walk Among the Tombstones | 2014 | Film | Actress, as Marie Gotteskind |
| The Diary of a Teenage Girl | 2015 | Film | Director and writer |
| Transparent | 2015 | TV series | Director |
References
- ↑ "Interview: Marielle Heller on Seeing Herself in "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
- 1 2 "Marielle Heller | Playscripts, Inc.". www.playscripts.com. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ↑ "MD Film Fest | About The Festival | Producers Club". www.md-filmfest.com. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
- 1 2 3 ""The Diary of a Teenage Girl" Director Marielle Heller Is Here to Remind You: Women Have Sexual Thoughts Too". Cosmopolitandate = 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
- ↑ "'Diary of a Teenage Girl' challenged perceptions of young women and sex". Entertainment Weekly's EW.com. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ↑ "MARIELLE HELLER AT THE SUNDANCE DIRECTORS LAB, PART ONE | Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
- ↑ McNary, Dave (May 31, 2016). "Melissa McCarthy to Play Novelist and Literary Forger Lee Israel (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 31, 2016.