Patricia Meyer

Associate Clinical Professor of Screenwriting

  • Los Angeles CA UNITED STATES

School of Film and Television

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Biography

Patricia K. Meyer, a screenwriter, producer, and educator, has sold and written numerous feature screenplays, from dark comedy to true crime drama, for Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jerry Weintraub, and all the major studios. In addition, she has written network miniseries and movies-of-the-week, as well as an original drama pilot for CBS.

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)

Areas of Expertise

Adaptations
Screenwriting
Film
Creative Writing
Film Production
Short Films
True-Crime Stories

Industry Expertise

Entertainment
Writing and Editing
Research
Motion Pictures and Film
Education/Learning
Media Production

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.

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