Don Roos | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | April 14, 1955 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, director, producer |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Donald Paul Roos (born April 14, 1955) is an American screenwriter and film director. [1]
Roos was born in upstate New York into a conservative Roman Catholic family of mostly Irish descent. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. After graduating, Roos moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a television screenwriting career. [2]
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 an executive producer of Hart to Hart . Roos wrote for The Colbys , Nightingales , and other TV shows, before his spec scripts led to feature film writing assignments. His first major film was 1992's Academy Award-nominated Love Field , an interracial drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert. [3]
Roos's 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 Maggie Gyllenhaal. Roos himself has won a Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award, for The Opposite of Sex . [4] Roos has polished or written the screenplay to many high-profile studio films, sometimes as uncredited script doctor.
With his husband - actor, writer, and film producer Dan Bucatinsky - he has two children, Eliza and Jonah.
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Single White Female | No | Yes | No |
| Love Field | No | Yes | Co-producer | |
| 1995 | Boys on the Side | No | Yes | Executive |
| 1996 | Diabolique | No | Yes | No |
| 1998 | The Opposite of Sex [1] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2000 | Bounce | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2005 | Happy Endings | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2008 | Marley & Me | No | Yes | No |
| 2009 | The Other Woman | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2018 | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | No | Yes | No |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Nightingales | No | Yes | Yes | No | Wrote 2 episodes |
| 2000 | M.Y.O.B. | Yes | Yes | Executive | Yes | Directed 2 episodes |
| 2008-2014 | Web Therapy | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Directed 131 episodes |
| 2010 | Who Do You Think You Are? | No | No | Executive | No | 7 episodes |
| 2011-2015 | Web Therapy | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | All 44 episodes |
| 2017 | Doubt | No | Yes | Consulting | No | Episode "Faith" |
| 2017-2018 | This Is Us | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | Episodes "The 20's" and "That'll Be the Day" |
| 2017-2021 | Younger | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | 7 episodes |
| 2020 | Council of Dads | No | No | Consulting | No | 5 episodes |
| Emily in Paris | No | No | Consulting | No | 4 episodes | |
| 2022 | Uncoupled | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | Episode "Chapter 5" |