Michael Arndt
American screenwriter
Michael Arndt is an American screenwriter, who has written for the films Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Toy Story 3 (2010), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).
Arndt won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Toy Story 3. This made Arndt the first screenwriter ever to be nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay for his first two screenplays.
He has also been credited under the pseudonyms Michael deBruyn and Rick Kerb, which are mainly used for script revisions.
Early life and education
Arndt was born in McLean, Virginia. Arndt's father was a member of the Foreign Service, and as a result he lived in various countries, including Sri Lanka and India; he also lived in Virginia for a time. Arndt graduated from Langley High School in McLean, and also attended The Potomac School. He graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Arndt was a script reader for some time, and was a personal assistant to actor Matthew Broderick until late 1999, when he chose to begin writing screenplays full-time.
Screenwriting career
Arndt wrote the first draft of Little Miss Sunshine in three days between May 23–26, 2000.
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