Audrey Ann Wells (née Lederer; January 25, 1960 – October 4, 2018) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer.[2] Her 1999 film Guinevere won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.
Audrey Wells | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Audrey Ann Lederer January 25, 1960[1] |
| Died | October 4, 2018 (aged 58) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1996–2018 |
| Spouse | Brian Larky |
| Children | Tatiana Wells |
Early life and education
editWells was born in San Francisco, California, to Austrian-American psychiatrist Wolfgang Lederer and Romanian-American psychologist Alexandra Botwin Lederer; her parents fled World War II-era Europe. She had Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish ancestry.[3]
She graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA.[4]
Career
editWells worked as a disc jockey at San Francisco jazz radio station KJAZ FM.
She wrote a number of successful screenplays and directed three for which she had created the script. Her works were primarily comedies and romance films. Among her films are The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) and Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), both of which she also produced. Her 1999 film Guinevere won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.[5] Wells also co-wrote the script for the comedy The Game Plan.
Death
editWells was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. She continued to work on film projects up until her death. Wells died on October 4, 2018, at age 58 due to cancer.
The film The Hate U Give, for which she wrote the screenplay, was released the day after she died.[6]
She also wrote the screenplay for the 2020 Netflix/Pearl Studio animated feature Over the Moon, which was dedicated to her memory.
Filmography
edit- The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), writer/executive producer
- George of the Jungle (1997), co-screenwriter
- Guinevere (1999), writer/director (feature directorial debut)
- Disney's The Kid (2000), writer
- Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), screen story writer/screenwriter/director/producer
- Shall We Dance? (2004), screenwriter
- The Game Plan (2007), co-story writer
- The Fugees (2012), director
- A Dog's Purpose (2017), co-screenwriter
- The Hate U Give (2018), screenwriter (film released posthumously)
- Abominable (2019), Additional screenplay material with Irena Brigull and William Davies (film released posthumously)
- Over the Moon (2020), writer (film released posthumously) - The film was dedicated to her memory.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Audrey A Lederer, Born 01/25/1960 in California". CaliforniaBirthIndex.org. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
- ^ Rebecca Flint Marx. "Audrey Wells". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013.
- ^ "The Endearing Jewish World of Jenny Slate". February 28, 2022.
- ^ Mervosh, Sarah (October 7, 2018). "Audrey Wells, Screenwriter Behind 'The Hate U Give,' Dies at 58". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (September 24, 1999). "Movie Review : A 'Guinevere' to Capture Any Man's Heart". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Stedman, Alex (October 5, 2018). "'The Hate U Give' Screenwriter Audrey Wells Dies at 58". Variety. Retrieved October 5, 2018.