Patricia Meyer
Associate Clinical Professor of Screenwriting
Biography
Meyer launched her career by optioning Gloria Naylor’s novel, The Women of Brewster Place, which she produced as an ABC 4-hour miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey, and which earned an Emmy® nomination and an Image Award. Next, she executive produced Nora Ephron’s feature directorial debut, This is My Life, for 20th Century Fox, based on the Meg Wolitzer novel which she optioned. She also developed and produced seven network movies starring Kirk Douglas, Kelsey Grammer, Corbin Bernsen, among other stars.
After a decade teaching screenwriting at the AFI Conservatory, Meyer has enjoyed serving for seven years as Associate Clinical Professor and Graduate Director of MFA Screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television.
In 2019 she was named one of the top film educators in the country by Variety: https://variety.com/2019/film/features/entertainment-education-report-best-films-schools-for-2019-1203213637/
Meyer is a longtime member of the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She earned a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Boston University.
Education
Boston University
M.F.A.
Fiction Writing
1983
Activities and Societies: Year Long workshop with a dozen selected fiction writer working intensively on our Masters Thesis, a collection of short stories. Honored to work with Richard Yates.
Harvard University
B.A.
History & Literature, England & France
1981
Activities and Societies: The Advocate (Literary Magazine)
Social
Areas of Expertise
Industry Expertise
Accomplishments
Best Film School Educator among Top Film Schools by Variety 2019
2019-05-16
https://variety.com/2019/film/features/entertainment-education-report-best-films-schools-for-2019-1203213637/
Affiliations
- Academy of Television Arts & Sciences : Member
- Writers Guild of America : Member
- American Film Institute : Screenwriting Senior Lecturer
- Women in Film
Languages
- French
Research Grants
Summer Research Grant 2023
LMU School of Film & Television $1500
2023-06-01
With my research grant I initially aimed to explore my grandfathers Nathan J. Blumberg and Fred S. Meyer, Universal President and CEO and Twentieth Century Fox VP of Labor Relations, respectively, and their experience overseeing film production in the 1930’s, leading up to World War II. I set out to determine how involved they were in combatting Anti-Semitism surging in Europe and seeping into the United States through Nazi spies and American Nazi supporters, as well as assassination plots to kill Jewish studio heads. After a deep dive at the Motion Picture Library, I focused my research on a seminal meeting my grandfather and other studio heads had with President Franklin Delano Roosvelt, ostensibly to discuss the companies' anti-trust mandates but aiming to convince the President to allow more Jews into America to spare their lives. This was June 23, 1938, less than five months before Kristallnacht in which Hitler launched the Holocaust.