Gillian Flynn
Flynn at the 52nd New York Film Festival, September 2014
Born	(1971-02-24) February 24, 1971 (age 53) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Author screenwriter producer
Alma mater	University of Kansas ( BFA) Northwestern University (MSJ)
Period	2007–present
Genre	Fiction thriller mystery
Notable works	Sharp Objects Dark Places Gone Girl
Spouse	Brett Nolan ​ ( m. 2007)​
Children	2
Website
gillian-flynn.com

Gillian Schieber Flynn ^{[1] [2] [3]} ( /ˈɡɪliən/; ^[4] born February 24, 1971) is an American author, screenwriter, and producer. She is known for writing the thriller and mystery novels Sharp Objects (2006), Dark Places (2009), and Gone Girl (2012), which are all critically acclaimed. ^[5] Her books have been published in 40 languages, ^[6] and according to The Washington Post, as of 2016 Gone Girl alone has sold more than 15 million copies. ^[7]

Flynn wrote the script for the 2014 film adaptation of Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher. For it she won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America and the BAFTA awards, among others.

The author also wrote and produced the HBO limited series adaptation of Sharp Objects, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy and the Writers Guild of America Award. Flynn also co-wrote with director Steve McQueen the screenplay of the film Widows (2018).

She has also served as showrunner, writer, and executive producer on Amazon Prime Video's sci-fi thriller series Utopia (2020), which ran for one season.

She is currently writing her fourth novel; it is set to be published by Penguin Random House.

Early life and education

Flynn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in midtown Kansas City's Coleman Highlands neighborhood. ^{[8] [9]} Both of her parents were professors at Metropolitan Community College–Penn Valley: her mother, Judith Ann (née Schieber), was a reading-comprehension professor, and her father, Edwin Matthew Flynn, was a film professor. ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]} She has an older brother, Travis, who is a railroad machinist. ^[9] Her uncle is Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Robert Schieber. ^[9] Flynn was "painfully shy" and found escape in reading and writing. ^[9] When she was growing up, Flynn's father would take her to watch horror movies. ^{[9] [10]}

Flynn attended Bishop Miege High School and graduated in 1989. ^{[9] [13]} As a young woman, she worked odd jobs which required her to do things such as dress up as a giant "yogurt cone who wore a tuxedo." ^{[13] [14]}

She attended the University of Kansas, where she received her undergraduate degrees in English and journalism. ^[14] She spent two years in California, writing at a trade magazine for human resources professionals, before moving to Chicago and attending Northwestern University ^[13] for a master's degree at its Medill School of Journalism in 1997. ^{[15] [16]} Flynn initially wanted to work as a police reporter, but she chose to focus on her own writing, as she discovered she had "no aptitude" for police reporting. ^{[17] [18]}

Career

After graduating from Northwestern, Flynn worked freelance briefly at U.S. News & World Report before being hired as a feature writer in 1998 at Entertainment Weekly. ^[9] She was promoted to television critic and wrote about films but was laid off in December 2008. ^{[9] [18] [19] [20]}

She attributes her craft to her 15-some years in journalism. She said, "I could not have written a novel if I hadn't been a journalist first, because it taught me that there's no muse that's going to come down and bestow upon you the mood to write. You just have to do it. I'm definitely not precious." ^[21]

Some critics have accused Flynn of misogyny due to the often unflattering depiction of female characters in her books. ^[5] Flynn identifies as a feminist. She feels that feminism allows for women to be bad characters in literature. She states, "The one thing that really frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good, innately nurturing." Flynn also said people will dismiss "trampy, vampy, bitchy types – but there's still a big pushback against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad, and selfish." ^[5] In 2015, Flynn explained her decision to write cruel female characters, saying, "I've grown quite weary of the spunky heroines, brave rape victims, soul-searching fashionistas that stock so many books. I particularly mourn the lack of female villains – good, potent female villains." ^[22]

In 2021, it was announced that Flynn would be running a book imprint for the newly founded independent publisher Zando. ^{[23] [24]}

Books

When Flynn was working for Entertainment Weekly, she was also writing novels during her free time. ^[11] She has written three novels and one short story.

• Sharp Objects (2006) revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned to her hometown from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families, violence and self-harm. The book was partly inspired by Dennis Lehane's Mystic River. ^[25] In 2007, the book was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories. ^[15] Sharp Objects was adapted into a 2018 television miniseries, starring Amy Adams. ^[26]
• Dark Places (2009) is about a woman who investigates whether or not her incarcerated brother was truly responsible for the murder of their family in the 1980s, which happened when she was a child during the era of panic about Satanic ritual abuse. Dark Places was adapted into a feature film, written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner. The cast included Charlize Theron, ^[27] Nicholas Hoult, ^[28] Christina Hendricks, ^[29] Drea de Matteo, ^[30] Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sean Bridgers. The film was released on August 7, 2015. Flynn made a cameo appearance in the film. ^[31]
• Gone Girl (2012) was released in June 2012 and concerns Nick Dunne, a small town Missouri creative writing professor whose wife, Amy, disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary. Gone Girl was No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list for eight weeks. ^[32] Culture writer Dave Itzkoff wrote that the novel was, except for the Fifty Shades trilogy, the biggest literary phenomenon of 2012. By the end of that year, Gone Girl had sold over two million copies in print and digital editions, according to the book's publisher. ^[32] Flynn wrote the script for a film adaptation of Gone Girl after 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights for $1.5 million. ^[33] The film was directed by David Fincher, who also collaborated with Flynn on the screenplay, and starred Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy ^[34] and was released on October 3, 2014, to both critical acclaim and box office success.
• The Grownup (2015) was originally published as a short story in the 2014 anthology Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, under the title "What Do You Do?". The story is about a sex worker who becomes a fake psychic and aura reader, and is then hired by a woman with a failing marriage and a disturbing stepson to purify her Victorian home. The story won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. ^[35]

Comic book

Flynn was an avid reader of comic and graphic novels when she was a child. ^[36] She collaborated with illustrator Dave Gibbons and wrote a comic book story called Masks. It is part of the anthology series Dark Horse Presents and was published by Dark Horse Comics in February 2015. ^[37]

Television writing

Flynn was executive producer and cowriter, along with Marti Noxon, on the HBO adaptation of her novel Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams. ^[38] The miniseries was released in 2018 and received critical acclaim.

In February 2014, it was reported that Flynn would be writing the scripts for Utopia, an HBO drama series adapted from the acclaimed British series Utopia. The HBO series was to be directed and executive produced by David Fincher. In July 2015 the project was cancelled due to budget disputes between Fincher and HBO. ^{[39] [40]} However, the project received second life at Amazon, with the streamer ordering the project to series with a 2020 release. Flynn wrote all eight episodes and served as the project's showrunner. Utopia was released on Amazon Prime Video on September 25, 2020. ^[41] In November 2020, the series was canceled after one season. ^[42]

Film

For her Gone Girl screenplay, Flynn was nominated for the Golden Globe, Writers Guild of America Award and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Flynn and filmmaker Steve McQueen co-wrote a film adaptation of the ITV series Widows. The film stars Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Daniel Kaluuya, and Robert Duvall, and was released in November 2018 to critical acclaim. ^[43]

Upcoming projects

She is currently writing her fourth novel; it is set to be published by Penguin Random House. ^[44]

Flynn is currently writing the film adaptation for her short story The Grownup, as she discussed in the Chanel Connects podcast in June 2022. ^[45]

In January 2024, Variety reported that Flynn is developing a limited series for HBO based on her novel Dark Places. She will serve as co-creator, writer, and co-showrunner. She holds the rights to the novel. Brett Johnson and Guerrin Gardner will also serve as co-showrunners, co-creators, and writers. ^[46]

In the following month, Deadline reported that Flynn and Tim Burton are developing a remake of Nathan H. Juran's classic Attack of the 50 Foot Woman film for Warner Bros. ^[47]

Personal life

Flynn married lawyer Brett Nolan in 2007. ^[48] They met during graduate school at Northwestern, ^[49] and began a relationship in their thirties. ^[21] They have two children. ^{[11] [50]} Their son Flynn was born in 2010 and their daughter Veronica was born in 2014. ^[51] They reside in Chicago. ^{[5] [52]}

Bibliography

Fiction

• Sharp Objects (2006)
• Dark Places (2009)
• Gone Girl (2012)
• The Grownup (short story) (2014)
• New novel (TBA)

Non-fiction

• "Gillian Flynn: A Howl". Time. Ideas. Dec 6, 2017. The outrages and allegations flash through my brain like a nasty, ludicrous slide show of twisted male power.
• "Gillian Flynn on Emma Thompson Reading The Turn of the Screw". The New York Times. Audiobooks. May 18, 2016. The Turn of the Screw is one of the most chilling ghost stories ever, largely because it is so deliciously elusive.
• "Be kind to people dressed as food ("Costume drama")". The New Yorker. Work for Hire. Oct 10, 2016. p. 78. In the late eighties, my job involved going out in public dressed as a tuxedoed dairy product. Children ran from me.
• "I Was Not a Nice Little Girl". Powell's Books. Jul 17, 2015. I was not a nice little girl. My favorite summertime hobby was stunning ants and feeding them to spiders. My preferred indoor diversion was a game called Mean Aunt Rosie, in which I pretended to be a witchy caregiver and my cousins tried to escape me.
• "Why Gillian Flynn Buys Her Purses from the Liquor Store". Elle. Personal Style. Oct 24, 2013. Let me give you an idea of my personal aesthetic: Until last year, I had no purse. I carried a wine bag.
• Gillian Flynn's Entertainment Weekly articles

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Credited as
		Writer	Producer	Notes
2014	Gone Girl	Yes	No	Directed by David Fincher
2018	Widows	Yes	No	Co-writer with director Steve McQueen
TBA	Attack of the 50 Foot Woman	Yes	No	Directed by Tim Burton
TBA	The Grownup	Yes	No

TV

Year	Title	Credited as
		Writer	Executive producer	Creator	Showrunner	Notes
2018	Sharp Objects	Yes	Yes	No	No	Network: HBO
2020	Utopia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Network: Amazon Prime Video
TBA	Dark Places	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Network: HBO

Awards and nominations

Literature

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
2007	Crime Writers' Association	Gold Dagger	Sharp Objects	Shortlisted
	Crime Writers' Association	Ian Fleming Steel Dagger		Won
	Crime Writers' Association	New Blood Dagger		Won
	Mystery Writers of America	Edgar Award for Best First Novel		Shortlisted	[53]
2009	Crime Writers' Association	Ian Fleming Steel Dagger	Dark Places	Shortlisted
2010	Dark Scribe magazine	Dark Genre Novel of the Year		Won	[54]
2013	Mystery Writers of America	Edgar Award for Best Novel	Gone Girl	Shortlisted
	Women's Prize for Fiction	Women's Prize for Fiction		Longlisted	[55]
2015	Mystery Writers of America	Edgar Award for Best Short Story	The Grownup	Won	[56]

Film

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
2014	Austin Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay	Gone Girl	Won	[57]
	Awards Circuit Community Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Black Film Critics Circle Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Chicago Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Florida Film Critics Circle Award	Screenwriter of the Year Award		Won
	IndieWire Critics' Poll	Best Screenplay		Nominated
	Golden Schmoes Award	Best Screenplay of the Year		Won
	Hollywood Film Award	Best Screenplay		Won
	NewNowNext Award	Best New Screenwriter		Won
	Online Film Critics Society Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Phoenix Critics Circle Award	Best Screenplay		Nominated
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award	Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium		Won
	San Diego Film Critics Society Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Screenwriters Choice Awards, Online	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Southeastern Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	St. Louis Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
2015
	Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award	Best Woman Screenwriter		Won
		Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay		Won
	BAFTA Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Cinema Bloggers Award, Portugal	Best Screenplay		Won
	Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Denver Film Critics Society Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Georgia Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Gold Derby Award	Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Golden Globe Award	Best Screenplay		Nominated
	Italian Online Movie Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	International Cinephile Society Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	International Online Cinema Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	International Online Film Critics' Poll	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	North Carolina Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
	Online Film & Television Association Award	Best Feature Debut		Won
	Satellite Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	Seattle Film Critics Society Award	Best Screenplay, Adapted		Nominated
	USC Scripter Award	USC Scripter Award		Nominated
	Writers Guild of America Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
2018	Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay	Widows	Nominated	[58]
	Online Association of Female Film Critics Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	St. Louis Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
2019	Black Reel Award	Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted or Original		Nominated
	Columbus Film Critics Association Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
	London Critics Circle Film Award	Screenwriter of the Year		Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society Award	Best Adapted Screenplay		Nominated
2020	Gold Derby Award	Best Screenplay of the Decade	Gone Girl	Nominated	[59]

TV

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
2018	Gotham Independent Film Award	Breakthrough Series – Long Form	Sharp Objects	Nominated	[60]
	USC Scripter Award	USC Scripter Award (shared with Marti Noxon; for the episode "Vanish")		Nominated
2019	Producers Guild of America Award	Best Limited Series Television		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series		Nominated
	Writers Guild of America Award for Television Award	Long Form – Adapted		Nominated

References

Further reading

• Stratton, Beth. "Altering the Hypermasculine through the Feminine: Female Masculinity in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl." Clues: A Journal of Detection, vol. 38, no. 1, 2020, pp. 19–27.

External links

• Official website
• Gillian Flynn at IMDb