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Don Roos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Roos
Born (1955-04-14) April 14, 1955 (age 69)
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, director, producer
Years active1979–present
Spouse
(m. 2008)
Children2

Donald Paul Roos (born April 14, 1955) is an American screenwriter and film director.[1]

Life and career

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Roos was born in upstate New York into a conservative Roman Catholic family of mostly Irish descent. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. After graduating, Roos moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a television screenwriting career.[2]

Roos supported himself by working as a word processor, and to this day jokes that he has that as a fall-back plan. Roos began his writing career when he had a friend of his impersonate an agent and represent him; a phone call led to a job with playwright Mart Crowley (The Boys in the Band), who at the time was an executive producer of Hart to Hart. Roos wrote for The Colbys, Nightingales, and other TV shows, before his spec scripts led to feature film writing assignments. His first major film was 1992's Academy Award-nominated Love Field, an interracial drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert.[3]

Roos's work as the writer of the film Single White Female has earned him a permanent space in Hollywood movie trivia, since that title has entered the lexicon[citation needed] in reference to the film's psychopathic lead character who begins to take on her roommate's identity.

Roos is well known for his work writing strong and engaging female characters,[citation needed] a skill that has also been useful in his film direction, leading to Independent Spirit Award nominations for actors Lisa Kudrow, Christina Ricci and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Roos himself has won a Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award, for The Opposite of Sex.[4] Roos has polished or written the screenplay to many high-profile studio films, sometimes as uncredited script doctor.

With his husband - actor, writer, and film producer Dan Bucatinsky - he has two children, Eliza and Jonah.

Filmography

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Film

Year Title Director Writer Producer
1992 Single White Female No Yes No
Love Field No Yes Co-producer
1995 Boys on the Side No Yes Executive
1996 Diabolique No Yes No
1998 The Opposite of Sex[1] Yes Yes No
2000 Bounce Yes Yes No
2005 Happy Endings Yes Yes No
2008 Marley & Me No Yes No
2009 The Other Woman Yes Yes No
2018 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society No Yes No

Television

Year Title Director Writer Producer Creator Notes
1989 Nightingales No Yes Yes No Wrote 2 episodes
2000 M.Y.O.B. Yes Yes Executive Yes Directed 2 episodes
2008-2014 Web Therapy Yes Yes No Yes Directed 131 episodes
2010 Who Do You Think You Are? No No Executive No 7 episodes
2011-2015 Web Therapy Yes Yes No Yes All 44 episodes
2017 Doubt No Yes Consulting No Episode "Faith"
2017-2018 This Is Us No Yes Co-executive No Episodes "The 20's" and "That'll Be the Day"
2017-2021 Younger No Yes Co-executive No 7 episodes
2020 Council of Dads No No Consulting No 5 episodes
Emily in Paris No No Consulting No 4 episodes
2022 Uncoupled No Yes Co-executive No Episode "Chapter 5"

References

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  1. ^ a b Maslin, Janet (May 29, 1998). "The Opposite of Sex (1998) FILM REVIEW; Her Mouth Is Poison, and Her Heart Is Fool's Gold". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "The Family Guy Behind the Dark Comedies", nytimes.com. May 8, 2005. Accessed September 29, 2022.
  3. ^ MacNab, Geoffrey (1999-01-14). "Strong, conniving women: the final frontier - Arts & Entertainment". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
  4. ^ Benedict, David (2000-06-16). "Here's to the bachelor with a spatula". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2010-04-10.[dead link]
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