Karen McCullah

McCullah was born in the Philippines, where her father had been assigned with the United States Navy performing counterespionage duties. She grew up in Maryland, where she attended elementary school before attending junior high in Japan, As a high school student, she maintained in her diary 10 Things I Hate About Anthony, her boyfriend at the time, which ultimately led to the title of her 1999 film, 10 Things I Hate About You. In 1988, McCullah graduated from James Madison University in Virginia where she was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and majored in marketing. Before screenwriting, McCullah worked in "marketing and PR, painting furniture sold in galleries in New Mexico, travel writing, and teaching creative workshops to teen gang members," as well as various fast food jobs. In 2005, she wrote her first novel, The Bachelorette Party. ==Screenwriting career==

McCullah describes many of the characters she's written as, essentially, “badass and full of mirth.” on a cocktail napkin. Though the first script did not sell, they wrote 10 Things I Hate About You while living in separate cities by mailing pages of the draft to each other. They were actively involved during filming, sometimes rewriting in the middle of the night and suggesting Luke Wilson as the love interest during casting. Originally, the "bend and snap" scene — where main character Elle explains to her new, older friend Paulette how to get her crush's attention — almost didn't make it into the movie. At first, the writers spent a week or two trying to figure out what the plot for Paulette should be, pitching "scene after scene" of crime plots that "all felt very tonally weird." The duo's modern day writing process generally involves co-writing a first draft, editing it separately, and redrafting it, usually turning in a 6th or 7th draft. McCullah's personal preferred way to write is outside in the sun, as she states "It’s hard for me to be funny in the rain." McCullah's is currently a faculty member at Syracuse University's Los Angeles Semester. Her future projects include Hope, a Netflix rom-com starring Aubrey Plaza, and Party Girls, a comedy picked up by Paramount Pictures, all with her screenwriting partner Smith. ==Writing==

Novels • The Bachelorette Party (2006) - Films • 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - an adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew set in a modern American high school • Legally Blonde (2001) - screen adaptation of Amanda Brown's novel Legally Blonde • Ella Enchanted (2004) - screen adaptation of Gail Carson Levine's 1997 novel Ella Enchanted • ''She's the Man'' (2006) - an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, or What You Will. • The House Bunny (2008) • The Ugly Truth (2009) • Crazy Kind of Love (2013) • The Last Resort (2027) • Party Girls (upcoming) • Hope (upcoming) Screenplays (unproduced) • a screenplay of her novel The Bachelorette Party. ==References==