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Diablo Cody

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Diablo Cody
Diablo Cody in January 2008
BornBrook Busey-Hunt
Occupation(s)Writer, Blogger
Years active2007-present
AwardsSpirit Award - Best First Screenplay
2007 Juno
Websitehttp://diablocody.blogspot.com/

Diablo Cody (born June 14, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois), the pen name of Brook Busey-Hunt, is an Academy Award-winning and BAFTA-Award winning writer and blogger. First known for her yearlong foray in the stripping and peep show circuits of Minneapolis, which she candidly chronicled on her Pussy Ranch blog and in her 2006 memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in The Life of an Unlikely Stripper, Cody won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for the 2007 film Juno. A sitcom written by Cody, called The United States of Tara, based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, is currently in pilot stage at Showtime. She has several other scripts in the development stage at various studios.

Early life and career

Cody, who took the pen name Diablo Cody (Diablo is Spanish for "devil") during a trip to Cody, Wyoming, attended Benet Academy, a Roman Catholic school in Lisle, Illinois. She grew up in Lemont, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a media studies degree. While at the University of Iowa, Cody was a DJ at KRUI 89.7 FM. Her first jobs were doing secretarial work at a Chicago law firm and later proofreading copy for advertisements that played on Twin Cities radio stations.

Cody began a parody of a weblog called Red Secretary, detailing the (fictional) exploits of a secretary living in Belarus. The events were thinly-veiled allegories for events that happened in Cody's real life, but told from the perspective of a disgruntled, English-idiom-challenged Eastern Bloc girl.

Cody's first bona fide blog appeared under the nickname Darling Girl after Cody had moved to Minneapolis from Chicago to "live in sin" with Jon (Jonny) Hunt, a musician she had met over the Internet. They married in October 2004, but separated in late 2007. On December 5, 2007, Cody announced in her "Pussy Ranch" blog that they are now divorced; Hunt wrote that they nonetheless remain friends. Cody currently resides in Los Angeles.

Stripping and journalism

On a whim, Cody signed up for amateur night at a Minneapolis strip club called the Skyway Lounge. Enjoying the experience, she eventually quit her day job and took up stripping full-time. Cody also spent time working peep shows at Sex World, a Minneapolis adult novelty and DVD store. Eventually she became disillusioned with stripping and switched to phone sex before eventually returning to stripping. Cody soon made a retreat to more traditional employment in journalism, and a budding writing career stimulated by her skin trade days.

While still stripping, Cody began writing for City Pages, an alternative Twin Cities weekly newspaper. She left City Pages just before it changed editorial hands. Cody has since written for the now-defunct Jane magazine. In December 2007, Cody debuted as Entertainment Weekly magazine's newest Backpage columnist, joining regular contributors Dalton Ross and the iconic pop horror author Stephen King on a rotational basis.

At the age of 24, Cody wrote her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in The Life of an Unlikely Stripper. The memoir began after Mason Novick, a manager, showed interest in Cody's acerbic wit and the popularity Pussy Ranch had received. Novick, who would soon become Cody's manager, secured a publisher and the memoir became a critical success.

Screenwriting

After completion of her book, Cody was encouraged by Novick to write her first screenplay. Within months she wrote Juno, a coming-of-age story about a teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Cody, which she won.

In July 2007, Showtime announced that it would be producing a pilot of Cody's Dreamworks television series, The United States of Tara. Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, Tara, a comedy about a mother with dissociative identity disorder, stars Toni Collette and will begin filming in Spring 2008. In October 2007, Cody sold a script titled Girly Style to Universal Studios, and a horror script called Jennifer's Body, starring Megan Fox, to Fox Atomic. She also partially wrote the script for Burlesque, a musical film by director/screenwriter Steven Antin.

Nominations and awards

Juno was runner-up for the Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and a Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, and the Satellite Awards.

References

  1. "Spotlight on Diablo Cody". Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  2. "Diablo Cody, Ex Stripper, Ellen Page Juno Writer, Photos Online". The Post Chronicle. 2007-01-08. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
  3. ^ "Ex-stripper in movie spotlight". CNN. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2008-01-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Desson, Thomson (2007-12-15). "Hollywood takes a shine to 'Juno' writer's body of work". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-01-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Abramowitz, Rachel (2007-12-06). "Diablo Cody: From stripper to screenwriter". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2008-01-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Diablo Cody, lap dancer turned ace screenwriter". Times Online. 2008-01-20. Retrieved 2008-04-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. Scott, Megan (2006-03-10). "Unlikely pole dancer tells strippers' story". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2008-01-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. Covert, Colin (2007-12-07). "Interview: Diablo Cody: Dancing as fast as she can". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved 2008-01-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. Billington, Alex (2007-10-16). "Juno Writer Diablo Cody's Burlesque - Moulin Rouge Mixed With Cabaret". Firstshowing.net. Retrieved 2008-02-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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