Callie Khouri

Carolyn Ann "Callie" Khouri (born November 27, 1957) is a Lebanese American film and television screenwriter, producer, feminist, and director. In 1992 she won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for the film Thelma & Louise, which was controversial upon its release because of its progressive representation of gender politics, but which subsequently became a classic.

Khouri's most recent movie, Mad Money, was released in 2008. On October 10, 2012, Khouri's television series, Nashville, premiered on ABC. The critics awarded it strong reviews.

Biography

Carolyn Ann Khouri was born in San Antonio, Texas, but was brought up in Kentucky as the daughter of a Lebanese American doctor and a southern belle. Her family name is of Christian Arab origin, meaning priest, in Arabic. Khouri's interest in theatre arts began when she took part in high school plays. Following her graduation from St. Mary's High School in Paducah, Kentucky, she studied landscape architecture at Purdue University before changing her major to drama. Khouri dropped out of Purdue and moved to Los Angeles, California where she waited tables at music clubs and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (where she studied with Peggy Feury, her first acting teacher). She soon realized that being an actress was not her destiny: "I can't stand people looking at me," says Khouri.