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Nancy Oliver

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Nancy Oliver
Born (1955-02-08) February 8, 1955 (age 71)
Framingham, Massachusetts
EducationUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
Florida State University
Known forPlaywright and screenwriter

Nancy Oliver (born February 8, 1955) is an American playwright and screenwriter who is best known for creating the 2022 miniseries Angelyne and her work on the successful TV series Six Feet Under. Oliver was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2008 for her debut screenplay, Lars and the Real Girl.

Early life, family and education

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Oliver was born in Syracuse, New York and raised in Framingham, Massachusetts.[1] She began writing at an early age.[2]

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During this time she was involved with the university's theater department as a performer.

She studied Drama at the Banff Fine Arts Center in Canada and Trinity College, Oxford. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Acting and Directing from Florida State University.[3]

Career

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While attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida for theatre, Oliver met director and screenwriter Alan Ball in 1976. Together, they founded the General Nonsense Theater Company, a satirical ensemble for which the two wrote, staged and starred in subversive comical sketches. She was also a member of Alarm Dog Rep. A playwright whose work includes Office, Dreams Are Funny, Calypso" and "VW as well as several plays for young people, she twice won Florida's Individual Artist Grant for Playwriting. In addition to working previously as a teacher, columnist and newspaper editor,

After graduating, Oliver supported herself by doing "anything anyone would pay me to do that was kind of mindless—typing, filing, Xeroxing—so I could save the rest for writing and directing."[4] She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 after the computer game she was writing for, Riana Rouge, relocated to the West Coast. She later teamed up again with Alan Ball, becoming his script reader. A few years later, shortly after deciding to abandon show business and move back to Florida,[2] Ball offered her a spot as a writer and co-producer for the award-winning television series Six Feet Under.[4] Oliver began as a writer during the show's third season and stayed on for three years.[5]

The idea for her first screenplay, which would eventually be made into the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl, was the result of an early job in which she dealt "with a lot of Web sites and a lot of lonely guys."[4] Oliver considers the story, in which a lonely and delusional 27-year-old man forms a romantic attachment to a sex doll, a "contemporary fairy tale".[2] After contemplating the concept for nearly five years, Oliver wrote the script over a nine-month period in 2002, before she was hired at Six Feet Under. In 2002, when her agent asked for a project to shop around, Oliver gave them Lars. In 2005, it was ranked No. 3 on the 2005 edition of The Black List, a compilation of the Top 90 most-liked, un-produced scripts in Hollywood.[4]

Directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Ryan Gosling, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received a standing ovation from the audience. The screenplay was eventually nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award for Original Screenplay. In 2008, Oliver received the Humanitas Prize for the screenplay.[6]

In 2007, Oliver again teamed up with Alan Ball to write and direct episodes for his HBO vampire series, True Blood.[7]

In 2022, Oliver created the Peacock miniseries Angelyne, starring Emmy Rossum.[8]

Awards and nominations

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References

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  1. ↑ "UMass alumna talks struggles and Oscar nod". The Daily Collegian. Pennsylvania State University. April 10, 2008. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Write Stuff: Interview with 'Lars and the Real Girl' Screenwriter Nancy Oliver". Cinematical.com (Interview). Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Nancy Oliver – Six Feet Under Cast and Crew". HBO.com. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rochlin, Margy (October 8, 2007). "Lars and the Real Girl: Guy and doll, and the woman behind them". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  5. ↑ Rochlin, Margy (October 7, 2007). "Guy and Doll, and the Woman Behind Them". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Screenwriters lauded with Humanitas Prize". ap.org. Associated Press. September 17, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)[dead link]
  7. ↑ Zeitchik, Steven (September 14, 2007). "'Six Feet' writers are having a Ball: 'True Blood' creator leads herd of dramaturgs". Variety. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  8. ↑ "L.A. What's Filming: NBC's Streaming Bio-Miniseries 'Angelyne,' Starring Emmy Rossum". backstage.com. March 4, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  9. ↑ Mitchell, Gregg; Goldman, Sherry (2009). "2010 Writers Guild Awards Television, Radio, News, Promotional Writing, and Graphic Animation Nominees Announced". Writers Guild of America. Retrieved April 30, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
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