Robin Swicord

Robin Swicord is primarily known for her work as a screenwriter especially for her adaptations of Memoirs of a Geisha, Little Women, Matilda (co-written with her husband Nicholas Kazan), The Perez Family, and Practical Magic. Her first screen credit was on the romantic teen comedy Shag, which was not an adaptation. She first emerged as a writer for the stage, with her off-Broadway comedy/dramas “Last Days at the Dixie Girl Café” and “Criminal Minds.” She moved into writing features in 1980, with the sale of her original screenplay Stock Cars for Christ, which was bought for Columbia Pictures by the producer Freddie Fields.

To prepare for the transition to film directing, Ms. Swicord wrote and directed a feature short film for Touchstone Films, The Red Coat, which starred veteran Oscar-winner, the late Teresa Wright and Annabeth Gish, and premiered at the Aspen Film Festival.

Born in South Carolina, Ms. Swicord grew up in rural north Florida and southern Georgia. Her father was a military-intelligence officer in the United States Navy who, as a very young man, was among the occupying Allied Forces stationed in Japan after World War II. Her family was stationed in Barcelona during Ms. Swicord’s early childhood, but the family returned to settle in a small town on Gulf Coast of Florida not far from the Georgia border. Centered in this part of the world are Swicord’s plays, as well as her screenplay Shag, a humorous coming-of-age story which takes its title from a Southern coastal dance contest, and not from a wall-to-wall carpet (or anything else).

Ms. Swicord began writing and making short films while she was at Florida State University, studying English Literature and Theatre. She worked as a photographer for local newspapers, a television news program and the Florida Game and Fish Commission; she moved on to writing and producing educational films.

A short training film Swicord made for IBM led to a “day job” in New York City, creating print advertising and commercials for IBM and Barnes & Noble Bookstores. The move to New York allowed Ms. Swicord to pursue her dream to work in theatre and feature films. In 1979 she helped produce her play “Last Days At The Dixie Girl Café,” which moved to Off Broadway. In 1984 Norman Rene’s theatre company, The Production Company, presented “Criminal Minds” on Off-Broadway. Both plays are published by Samuel French.

Ms. Swicord is married to fellow playwright and screenwriter & director Nicholas Kazan. They have two daughters. The Swicord-Kazans live in both Santa Monica, California and Vashon Island, Washington in Puget Sound.

Ms. Swicord is active in the Writers Guild of America West’s Screenwriters’ Council, which provides guidance to the Board in matters such as creative rights and the professional status of writers. She has also served on the WGA Foundation’s board, where she helped start the WGA’s educational outreach program to provide working film writers as special lecturers in universities and film schools.

Following her interest in children’s literature and education, Ms. Swicord became involved in the development and expansion of Wildwood, an innovative private school in Los Angeles. For ten years, Swicord led the school’s strategic planning. She was part of a visionary coalition of trustees who guided the school to financial stability and researched, designed and financed an upper school that would “reinvent high school”. Wildwood’s upper school was launched seven years ago, and was immediately recognized by the Gates Foundation with a grant to enable Wildwood School to assist in the establishing of similar small high schools. In June 2001, Ms. Swicord resigned as VP of Wildwood’s Board of Trustees, to turn her full attention to writing and directing films.

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