Don Roos

Don Roos
Born	April 14, 1955 (1955-04-14) (age 56) New York
Occupation	screenwriter, director, producer
Years active	1979—
Partner	Dan Bucatinsky

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

Life and career

Roos was born in New York. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. After graduating, Roos moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career writing for television.

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 Executive Producer of Hart to Hart. Roos went on to write for The Colbys, Nightingales, and other TV shows, before his spec scripts led to feature film writing assignments. His first major film was 1991's Academy Award-nominated Love Field, an interracial drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert.^[1]

Roos' 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 most recently, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Roos himself has won a Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award, for The Opposite of Sex.^[2] Roos has polished or written the screenplay to many high-profile studio films, sometimes as uncredited script doctor.

Films directed

• The Other Woman (also screenwriter)
• Happy Endings (2005) (also writer)
• Bounce (2000) (also writer)
• The Opposite of Sex (1998) (also writer)

Films written

• Marley & Me (2008) (screenwriter)
• Diabolique (1996) (writer)
• Boys on the Side (1995) (writer)
• Love Field (1992) (writer)
• Single White Female (1992) (screenwriter)

References

1. ^ MacNab, Geoffrey (1999-01-14). "Strong, conniving women: the final frontier - Arts & Entertainment". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/strong-conniving-women-the-final-frontier-1046933.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10. 
2. ^ Benedict, David (2000-06-16). "Here's to the bachelor with a spatula". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/heres-to-the-bachelor-with-a-spatula-714890.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10. 

External links

• Don Roos at the Internet Movie Database
• Don Roos talks about his writing process

Persondata
Name	Roos, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1955-04-14
Place of birth	New York
Date of death
Place of death