Linda Woolverton

Linda Cheryl Woolverton is a prominent American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. She was born in Long Beach, California on December 19, 1952, to a schoolteacher and a technical writer. Her foremost works are books and screenplays of several Disney films and stage musicals. She is known for creating strong female characters who are inquisitive and do not conform to the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype which used to be the norm in Disney movies. For her exemplary work, she has received a DFWFCA Award, Laurence Olivier Award and a Writer’s Guild award along with Tony Award and BAFTA nominations. Woolverton graduated from high school in 1969 as an honors student in the school’s theater program.

She graduated with a BFA in the Theatre Arts from California State University in 1973. Following this, she pursued a Master’s degree in children’s theater at California State Fullerton which she completed in 1976. Following this, she formed her own children's theater company. In 1979 she coached children who were acting in commercials. Woolverton worked as a secretary at CBS for a short duration during the 1980’s during which she worked on a young adult novel while waiting for opportunities. She quit her job soon after that and worked as a substitute teacher, which offered her much more free time to work on her novels.

Woolverton’s first opportunities came in the form of scriptwriting for children’s animated shows such as ‘Dennis the Menace,’ ‘My Little Pony,’ ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ and ‘Star Wars-Ewoks.’ She was initially discouraged by her agent to pursue her dream of working for Disney. However, she submitted a copy of her second novel ‘Running before the Wind’ at the Disney offices in Burbank, California and was offered a job there by Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg two days later. Woolverton became the first female scriptwriter for Disney and her first animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (1991). This film was nominated for an Academy award, being the very first film to do so. 

It also won the Golden Globe Award that year for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy. Her success led her to write scripts for various other movies soon after. She co-wrote the plot for Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey in 1993 which was a live action movie. She received critical acclaim for Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King Click to look into! >> Read More... (1994). Woolverton also adapted her own screenplay to release a Broadway musical version of Beauty and the Beast in 1994 which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Book in Musical. Following this, she helped with Disney projects like Mulan (1998) and another Broadway project called Aida (2000).

Woolverton worked on a few individual projects apart from Disney, which included another Broadway musical called Lestat (2007) which is an adaptation of the Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice and co-wrote the narration for a documentary film called Artic Tale. Woolverton returned to Disney with Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Alice in Wonderland gave Woolverton sole writing credit for a billion dollar film. Maleficent, which is a live-action adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, was nominated for two BAFTAs- Best Feature Film and BAFTA Kids Vote-Feature Film.

In 2016, Woolverton wrote the script for the second part of Alice in Wonderland which was called ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. At present, it has been announced that she is working on a sequel for Maleficent. She is also the executive producer for a television series based on The Clan Click to look into! >> Read More... of the Cave Bear books. Woolverton’s feminist views are voraciously portrayed in her works through the ages. Belle was an independent, vibrant and well-read character.

Mulan was another powerful female character who joins the Chinese Army to save her father and ends up saving the entire Empire. Consequently, Alice in Alice in Wonderland was portrayed untraditionally as the adventurous heroine who participates in heroic battles and rescues her fellow characters. Woolverton believes in the realistic portrayal of her female characters that are no longer meek and in need of a rescue, but are rather fiercely opinionated individuals. Woolverton was married to producer Lee Flicker from whom she is now divorced and has a daughter Keaton Flicker who was born in 1991. She presently lives in Hancock Park, Los Angeles with her five dogs