Gary Ross

Gary Ross is an American screenplay writer, film director, and author. He is known for directing The Games. He directed Pleasantville as well Seabiscuit, a Best Picture nominated film. He was born on 3 November 1956 in Los Angeles, California, United States of America. He is the son of Arthur and Gail A. Ross. His father is a screenwriter who garnered Oscar nomination. He has a Jewish lineage. He went to the University of Pennsylvania but didn’t graduate. He worked as a fisherman.

In 1980, he worked on Presidential Campaign of Ted Kennedy. He was consulted on Bill Clinton’s and Michael Dukakis’s Presidential campaigns. Before he got hired for writing the screenplays for Paramount Pictures, he wrote a novel. In 1983, he wrote for the TV series called Deadly Nightmares. He married Allison Thomas with whom he has two children. The couple got separated this year. His first screenplay that got converted into film was for the Tom Hank starrer movie named “Big” (1986). He co-wrote it with Anne Spielberg, Steven Spielberg’s sister. It received nominations for Writers Guild of America Award and Academy Awards.

In 1993, he wrote for the movie named Dave which became a hit. In 1998, he directed and penned Pleasantville. He received Oscar nominations for Dave under the Best Writing (Original Screenplay) category. For Pleasantville, he received Producers Guild of America Nova Award under the Most Promising Producer category. He also won Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2003, he wrote, produced as well as directed the film called Seabiscuit which is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit: An American Legend. It went on to garner a total of seven Academy Awards nominations. He also garnered nominations for Writers Guild of America Award.

He adapted the Suzanne Collins Suzanne Collins is an American author and scriptwr >> Read More... ' trilogy named Hunger Games starring Jennifer Lawrence She’s an Academy Award winning actress at her youn >> Read More... . The film did well, commercially. Critics also praised the film for the visuals and acting of the protagonists. Even after this, he opted for not directing the sequels citing rushed production schedule as his reason. He, instead, focused on film projects like Free State of Jones (a civil war film) and Creature from the Black Lagoon. His father co-wrote the latter film. He produced and wrote the animated movie named The Tale of Despereaux which is based on Kate DiCamillo’s children's book. The book also earned Newbery Medal. The first book of the author named Bartholomew Biddle and the “Very Big Wind” is written in verse.