Stacy Thal

Raised in rural Western Marin County, Stacy Thal studied film at U.C. Berkeley. A combination of fate, good luck and youthful bravado landed her on Eleanor Coppola's (wife of Francis Coppola) doorstep - literally. Looking for a way to make their own names in the business, they set about developing a movie review show done by women for women, a sort of Siskel & Ebert for the ladies. While Coppola produced, Stacy shot, co-directed and wrote the show, the pilot of which Francis Coppola eventually directed. It was through that project that Francis was introduced to Stacy's work and enlisted her to write under the Zoetrope umbrella. There she was tasked with doctoring screenplays to ensure the presence of realistic, vibrant women characters, as well as provided script coverage for Zoetrope producer Fred Roos. Soon she wrote and developed a screenplay for Coppola's fledgling Commercial Pictures studio called Robots, the original idea of which was inherited from Francis and Eleanor's son Gio.

Over the years, Stacy has adapted books for the screen (including Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar) and written screenplays in several genres, including comedy, action and suspense - for features and television.

In the winter of 2011, the film Franny was shot from an original screenplay she wrote along with Jessica Anya Blau. Franny was directed by Ash Christian (Fat Girls, Magnus!, Petunia).