Don Roos
Don Roos | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 14, 1955 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations | Screenwriter, director, producer |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Donald Paul Roos (born April 14, 1955) is an American screenwriter and film director.[1]
Life and career
Roos was born in upstate New York into a conservative Roman Catholic family of mostly Irish descent. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. After graduating, Roos moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a television screenwriting career.[2]
Roos supported himself by working as a word processor, and to this day jokes that he has that as a fall-back plan. Roos began his writing career when he had a friend of his impersonate an agent and represent him; a phone call led to a job with playwright Mart Crowley (The Boys in the Band), who at the time was an executive producer of Hart to Hart. Roos wrote for The Colbys, Nightingales, and other TV shows, before his spec scripts led to feature film writing assignments. His first major film was 1992's Academy Award-nominated Love Field, an interracial drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert.[3]
Roos's work as the writer of the film Single White Female has earned him a permanent space in Hollywood movie trivia, since that title has entered the lexicon in reference to the film's psychopathic lead character who begins to take on her roommate's identity.[4][5][6]
Roos is well known for his work writing strong and engaging female characters,[7] a skill that has also been useful in his film direction, leading to Independent Spirit Award nominations for actors Lisa Kudrow, Christina Ricci and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Roos himself has won a Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award, for The Opposite of Sex.[8] Roos has polished or written the screenplay to many high-profile studio films, sometimes as uncredited script doctor.
With his husband - actor, writer, and film producer Dan Bucatinsky - he has two children, Eliza and Jonah.[9][10]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Single White Female | No | Yes | No |
| Love Field | No | Yes | Co-producer | |
| 1995 | Boys on the Side | No | Yes | Executive |
| 1996 | Diabolique | No | Yes | No |
| 1998 | The Opposite of Sex[1] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2000 | Bounce | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2005 | Happy Endings | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2008 | Marley & Me | No | Yes | No |
| 2009 | The Other Woman | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2018 | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | No | Yes | No |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Nightingales | No | Yes | Yes | No | Wrote 2 episodes |
| 2000 | M.Y.O.B. | Yes | Yes | Executive | Yes | Directed 2 episodes |
| 2008-2014 | Web Therapy | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Directed 131 episodes |
| 2010 | Who Do You Think You Are? | No | No | Executive | No | 7 episodes |
| 2011-2015 | Web Therapy | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | All 44 episodes |
| 2017 | Doubt | No | Yes | Consulting | No | Episode "Faith" |
| 2017-2018 | This Is Us | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | Episodes "The 20's" and "That'll Be the Day" |
| 2017-2021 | Younger | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | 7 episodes |
| 2020 | Council of Dads | No | No | Consulting | No | 5 episodes |
| Emily in Paris | No | No | Consulting | No | 4 episodes | |
| 2022 | Uncoupled | No | Yes | Co-executive | No | Episode "Chapter 5" |
References
- ^ a b Maslin, Janet (May 29, 1998). "The Opposite of Sex (1998) FILM REVIEW; Her Mouth Is Poison, and Her Heart Is Fool's Gold". The New York Times.
- ^ Carr, David (May 8, 2005). "The Family Guy Behind the Dark Comedies". The New York Times. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
- ^ MacNab, Geoffrey (January 14, 1999). "Strong, conniving women: the final frontier". The Independent. London. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
- ^ McCarty-Simas, Payton (August 14, 2022). "'Single White Female' at Thirty: The Legacy of the Women Stalkers of the 1990s". Film Daze. Retrieved March 5, 2026.
- ^ Kang, Inkoo (August 14, 2017). "'Single White Female' Turns 25: Why Lesbian-Phobic Thriller Is Problematic". The Wrap. Retrieved March 5, 2026.
- ^ Franich, Darren; Staskiewicz, Keith (February 4, 2011). "Single White Female: The Roommate inspiration signs a lease with PopWatch Rewind". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 5, 2026.
- ^ Cavagna, Carlo (July 2005). "Interview:Don Roos". AboutFilm.Com. Retrieved March 5, 2026.
- ^ Benedict, David (June 16, 2000). "Here's to the bachelor with a spatula". The Independent. London. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
- ^ Chiu, Melody (May 24, 2025). "Filming Under the Tuscan Sun Made Dan Bucatinsky Yearn to Be a Dad. 23 Years Later, He Makes Emotional Return to Italy with His Daughter". People. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
- ^ Willmore, Allison (February 13, 2013). "Dan Bucatinsky on 'Scandal,' 'Web Therapy' and the Evolution of Gay Characters on the Small Screen". IndieWire. Retrieved January 3, 2014.