Linda Woolverton was born on December 19,1952 and is an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist, whose most prominent works include the screenplays and books of several acclaimed Disney films and stage musicals.
15 Facts About Linda Woolverton
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Linda Woolverton is the first woman to have written an animated feature for Disney, Beauty and the Beast, which is the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Linda Woolverton co-wrote the screenplay of The Lion King, provided additional story material for Mulan, and adapted her own Beauty and the Beast screenplay into the book of the Broadway adaptation of the film, for which she received a Tony Award nomination and won an Olivier Award.
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Linda Woolverton attended California State University, Long Beach, graduating with a BFA in Theater Arts in 1973.
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Linda Woolverton received her Master's degree in theater for children in 1979.
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Linda Woolverton wrote, directed and performed all over California in churches, malls, schools, and local theaters.
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Linda Woolverton began to work as a creative drama instructor in 1979.
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Linda Woolverton was hired to write the script for Disney Feature Animation's Beauty and the Beast, thus becoming the first woman to write an animated feature for the studio.
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From early 1985 to 1988, two different teams of writers had taken a turn at adapting Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's tale into a feature film, but Linda Woolverton succeeded by incorporating her own ideas into the story, such as making the protagonist a bookworm.
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Linda Woolverton co-wrote the screenplay of the live-action film Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, released in 1993, and worked again with Disney Animation by helping the pre-production story development of Aladdin, released in 1992, and co-writing the screenplay of The Lion King, released in 1994.
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Linda Woolverton provided additional story material for Mulan, released in 1998, and co-wrote the book of the stage musical Aida, which opened on Broadway in 2000 to critical acclaim.
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Linda Woolverton presented the screenplay to producers Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd, and Joe Roth, who took it to Disney.
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Linda Woolverton wrote the book of the Broadway musical Lestat, an adaptation of The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, which pre-debuted in 2005 in San Francisco to become the highest-earning pre-Broadway play in the city's history.
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Linda Woolverton co-wrote the narration script of the National Geographic theatrical documentary film Arctic Tale, released in 2007.
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Linda Woolverton is divorced from producer Lee Flicker, with whom she has a daughter, named Keaton, born in 1991.