Kelly Fremon Craig


Kelly Fremon Craig is an American screenwriter, producer, and film director. She is known for directing, writing, and co-producing the 2016 coming-of-age comedy-drama The Edge of Seventeen.

Early life

Fremon Craig was born in Whittier, California and graduated from UC Irvine with an English degree.

Career

2000s

Fremon Craig started out writing sketch comedy and spoken word poetry in college, then landed an internship in the film division of Immortal Entertainment, where she read her first film script and began to pursue screenwriting. She developed several screenplays during the 2000s, including a modern high school retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac and a comedic remake of the 2004 French drama Intimate Strangers for Paramount Pictures. One of her scripts, Ticket to Ride, caught the attention of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman. He bought the script under his The Montecito Picture Company as a directing vehicle for Reitman. According to Reitman, the script was rewritten at least 15 times. The film was released, under the new title Post Grad. The film was instead directed by Shrek director Vicky Jenson and was released in 2009 to critical and commercial disappointment.

2010s

In 2011, Fremon Craig completed another script titled Besties and sent the script over to James L. Brooks. Brooks bought the script and it was announced that Fremon Craig would direct the film and Brooks would serve as a producer and mentor for her first film. No updates were issued for the feature until August 2015, when Hailee Steinfeld was announced to star in the film. Casting continued until October that same year, with filming commencing that same month. The film was released by STX Entertainment in Fall 2016 under its new title The Edge of Seventeen to critical praise and it was a modest financial hit. Fremon Craig also provided uncredited rewrites for the 2018 Transformers spin-off film Bumblebee, also starring Steinfeld.

2020s

Fremon Craig was attached as sole screenwriter for an animated film adaptation of Scooby-Doo for Warner Animation Group. The film, released as Scoob! in 2020, was instead rewritten by Adam Sztykiel, Jack Donaldson, Derek Elliott, Matt Lieberman, Eyal Podell, and Jonathon E. Stewart.

Upcoming projects

Craig has cited writer-director John Hughes as an influence on writing The Edge of Seventeen, and has mentioned Christopher Guest, Alexander Payne, Nick Hornby, and David Sedaris as inspirations.

Unrealized projects

Fremon Craig now resides in Los Angeles with her husband and young son. She is a represented by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone.

Filmography

Accolades

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