Zach Helm

Early life

In 1996, Helm graduated from DePaul University, where he trained as an actor. After being chosen for a writer's program by Fox 2000 Pictures, he spent several years doing uncredited rewrites for film scripts.

Career

He wrote the 2006 fantasy comedy-drama film Stranger than Fiction. He won the National Board of Review Award for Best Original Screenplay and the PEN Center USA West Literary Award in the Screenplay category. He was also nominated for the Critics Choice Award for Best Writer, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Saturn Award for Best Writing.

In 2006, Helm was approached to direct Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, for which he had previously written a screenplay. In 2013, he described the movie as a "Technicolor train-wreck" as reported by online tabloid news source TMZ.

He began Interviewing the Audience in 2008, a revival of one of Spalding Gray's performance pieces which he had seen while in college. As the title suggests, audience members are brought onto the stage and interviewed, their personal stories and insights extracted in long-form conversations meant to create a sense of communal intimacy but challenge the convention of theater and story. Helm's approach differed from Gray's in that Helm's conversations were entirely extemporaneous, without any prepared questions, and the audience members were drawn at random. Helm tended to find and illuminate themes and connections within the interviews, thereby creating a through-line for each performance as it happened.

Helm wrote Le Bon Canari (Good Canary), which was produced in France in 2007, then translated into Spanish (El Buen Canario) and produced in Mexico. It was translated into English in 2016 for the Rose Theatre Kingston. Drawn from Helm's personal experiences, the play is known for its dark humor, coarse language, and views on sexism and misogyny as well as its use of Brechtian devices.

In 2013, Helm was announced as the director for a film production titled Culo Quasars Cocaine Chaos, the script for which he adapted from the true story of Paul Frampton. The movie was never made. In 2016, Helm adapted the Epic Magazine article "The Mercenary" for Fox, collaborating with journalists Josh Davis and Josh Bearman.

Personal life

Helm was married to actress Kiele Sanchez from 2001 to 2008.

Filmography

TV movies

Feature films

References

References

1. "FamilySearch.org".
2. Pride, Ray. (9 November 2006). "A Chicago Like No Other: DePaul grad Zach Helm's ''Stranger Than Fiction''". New City Film.
3. A.O., Scott. (10 November 2006). "Hearing Voices? It's Just Somebody's Imagination". [[The New York Times]].
4. "2006 Award Winners".
5. Kilday, Gregg. (12 December 2006). "Twin noms for DiCaprio a BFCA first". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
6. Diorio, Carl. (12 January 2007). "WGA screenplay noms include comedies". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
7. Lytal, Cristy. (13 November 2007). "Zach Helm's World of Wonder". [[MovieMaker]].
8. (24 September 2013). "''Mr. Magorium'' Director: 'Hey ''Breaking Bad'' I Hate My Movie, Too!'". TMZ.
9. (2013-01-14). "Interviewing the Audience".
10. (2016-02-05). "John Malkovich to make London debut as a theatre director".
11. Swann, Maxine. (2013-03-08). "The Professor, the Bikini Model and the Suitcase Full of Trouble (Published 2013)". The New York Times.
12. (March 8, 2016). "'Stranger Than Fiction' Writer Tapped to Write 'The Mercenary' for Fox (Exclusive)".
13. (November 27, 2007). "NU grad directs 'Wonder Emporium'". [[The Union (Grass Valley).
14. (January 9, 2012). "Actress Kiele Sanchez, ex-husband Zach Helm list Los Feliz-area home at $1.849 million". [[The Los Angeles Times]].