Phyllis Nagy facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Phyllis Nagy
At the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, 2022
Born	(1962-11-07) November 7, 1962 (age 62) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, theater director, screenwriter, playwright
Years active	1992–present

Phyllis Nagy (born November 7, 1962) is an American director and writer for theatre and film. She is known for her work as a screenwriter (someone who writes movie scripts) and playwright (someone who writes plays). In 2006, Nagy was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on the TV film Mrs. Harris. Later, in 2016, she was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the movie Carol.

Life and Career

Phyllis Nagy was born in New York City, United States. In 1992, she moved to London, England. This is where her career as a playwright really began. She worked at the Royal Court Theatre, a famous theatre in London. She was even the writer-in-residence there for a few years in the mid-1990s. This means she was a special writer who worked closely with the theatre.

Nagy's plays have been performed in many different countries. Some of her early plays include Weldon Rising (1992) and Butterfly Kiss (1994). She also adapted a famous book, The Scarlet Letter, into a play in 1994. Another play, Disappeared, won two awards: the Mobil International Playwriting Prize in 1992 and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1995. Disappeared was first shown at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995. Nagy herself directed this play. It later won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Regional Play.

More recently, Nagy wrote Never Land, which premiered in 1998. She also adapted another novel by Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley, for the stage in 1998. In 2003, her version of Anton Chekhov's classic play The Seagull was performed.

Nagy also writes for movies. She wrote the screenplay for the film Carol, which came out in 2015. This movie was based on a 1952 novel called The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Nagy was a friend of Highsmith and started writing the script for Carol way back in 1997. Her second movie as a director, Call Jane, was first shown at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Awards and Recognition

Phyllis Nagy has received many awards and nominations for her work. In 2006, she was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Mrs. Harris. One nomination was for writing the TV film, and the other was for directing it. Mrs. Harris starred famous actors like Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening. The film received a total of 12 Emmy nominations. Nagy won a PEN Center USA West Award for her screenplay of Mrs. Harris. She also won a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Director.

In 2015, Nagy received many awards and nominations for her work on the movie Carol. She won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, which is a very prestigious award. Other nominations included the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Filmography