Melisa Wallack | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 (age 56–57) Wayzata,Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupation | Screenwriter,film director |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Skidmore College |
| Spouse | Bernie Goldmann[1] |
Melisa Wallack is an Americanscreenwriter andfilm director. Wallack and fellow screenwriterCraig Borten were nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 2013 filmDallas Buyers Club.
Wallack was born inWayzata,Minnesota,[1][2] a small town outsideMinneapolis.[3] She is one of six children.[3] She attended The Breck School andSkidmore College, earning aBachelor of Arts in English and aBachelor of Science in business.[4]
After college, she returned to Minneapolis, in 1993 where she joined her sister Andrea Wallack in establishing a national presence for NightOwl Discovery, a company specializing in data discovery, governance and compliance for heavily regulated industries. When the company expanded to the West Coast in 1995, Wallack moved toLos Angeles and, after "meeting a lot of writers", decided to become a screenwriter herself.[1][5] She partnered withCraig Borten to write the screenplay forDallas Buyers Club, which was based on the true story ofAIDS activist Ron Woodruff.[1] Although Wallack and Borten sold the script in the 1990s, the film did not enter production for several years and was released in 2013, almost 20 years after it had been written.[5]Dallas Buyers Clubreceived numerous accolades, including anAcademy Award nomination forBest Original Screenplay for Wallack and Borten.[5]
After selling the script forDallas Buyers Club, Wallack was named one ofVariety magazine's "10 screenwriters to watch" in 2005.[1] Her first feature film to be produced wasMeet Bill, which Wallack wrote and directed with her husband, Bernie Goldmann, and which was released in 2007.[5] She created the story for the 2012 filmMirror Mirror, an adaptation of theSnow White fairy tale starringJulia Roberts.[4]
Wallack's future projects include the screenplay ofEmily the Strange[4] and a rewrite ofThe Last Witch Hunter.[6]
In 2021, an article by AIDS activistPeter Staley described Wallack as anAIDS denialist and detailed the experience of attempting to remove more than 30 inaccurate claims about AIDS from her original script forDallas Buyers Club.[7]
