Lorene Scafaria is an American screenwriter and director whose career is on the rise. Her latest film, Hustlers, is a box office and critical success!
We must keep an eye on her. So let’s dive into some unknown and facts about her life and career!
- Lorene Scafaria was born on May 1, 1978
- She is an American screenwriter, playwright, actress, singer, and film director
- She is best known for her work on the films Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
- The latter was her debut as director in 2012
- Scafaria was born and raised in Holmdel Township, New Jersey
- She is the daughter of Gail and Joseph R. Scafaria
- Her father was an Italian immigrant, from Gioia Tauro, Calabria
- She first became interested in writing when she would write up a report on a completely fake book once a month to win Pizza Hut gift certificates from her school
- She began to take an interest in storytelling and had written and produced her first play in Red Bank, New Jersey by the age of seventeen
- After graduating from Holmdel High School in 1995 she attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania for a year
- Then she switched to New Jersey’s Montclair State University when she could no longer afford Lafayette’s tuition
- She graduated from Montclair with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Theater
- After moving to New York City, Scafaria wrote and put up a play at the Producer’s Club Theatre called That Guy and Others Like Him
- In which she also played a role
- She also had a small role in the acclaimed short film, Bullet in the Brain
- Winner of nine festivals and produced by CJ Follini
- Still her writing agent had yet to find her a job
- And so she took on more acting roles
- Appearing in many theater productions in addition to the films Big Helium Dog and A Million Miles, among others
- She sent out queries to twenty different agents, seeking representation
- One of whom replied and asked Scafaria to move from New York to Los Angeles
- Even though she did not anticipate real success with the agent, she moved out and became roommates with screenwriter Bryan Sipe
- Whom she had met making a film in New Jersey earlier
- Neither of their work was considered “commercial” enough by studios
- So they paired up to write a children’s adventure film called Legend Has It
- Revolution Studios bought the screenplay but asked for a re-write which Scafaria described as “far less interesting”
- And the project was ultimately shelved
- In early 2005, Scafaria was hired by Focus Features to adapt Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s book Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist into a film of the same name
- The screenplay was her ninth
- But her first adaptation
- She is good friends with fellow writers Diablo Cody (Juno), Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas), and Liz Meriwether (No Strings Attached)
- With whom she collaborates in their writing group they call the “Fempire”
- In 2012, Scafaria and the “Fempire” received the Athena Film Festival Award for Creativity and Sisterhood
- She wrote Iraqi war docudrama Sweet Relief for Paramount Pictures and The Mighty Flynn
- A spec script which she set up at Warner Brothers
- She has also written Man and Wife
- Which Gabriele Muccino is attached to direct
- In 2009, Mandate Pictures picked up Scafaria’s script Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
- A romantic comedy that focused on one man’s quest for a meaningful connection amid the “end of days”
- The film marked the directorial debut for Scafaria
- And was released in June 2012
- In 2015, she also directed a comedy-drama The Meddler based on her own script
- In 2019, Scafaria wrote and directed Hustlers
- Based on New York magazine’s 2015 article The Hustlers at Scores by Jessica Pressler
- The film premiered at TIFF 2019
- It garnered critical acclaim
- It debuted with over $33 million in its first three days at the box office
- Is poised to earn Jennifer Lopez her first Academy Award nomination
- It is distribudet by STX
- And it is the biggest opening for STX
