Gillian Flynn Story
Gillian Flynn is an American author, comic book writer, screenwriter, and former television critic for the Entertainment Weekly. She has published three suspense novels, Sharp Objects, Gone Girl and Dark Places. Out of these Gillian adapted Gone Girl for the screen, and the film released in 2014 under the same name, directed by David Fincher.
Childhood
Gillian was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in the Coleman Highlands neighborhood. Her parents were both professors at the Metropolitan Community College–Penn Valley. Judith Ann, Gillian’s mother was a reading-comprehension professor, and Edwin Matthew Flynn, her father, was a film professor. Gillian’s elder brother, Travis, is a railroad machinist. Gillian was extremely shy and mostly kept to herself, reading and writing.
Gillian attended the Bishop Miege High School and graduated in 1989, after which she received an undergraduate degree in journalism and English from the University of Kansas. Later, Gillian worked as a writer for a trade magazine for HR professionals for two years. She is also an alumnus of the Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, from where she completed her Master’s, in 1997.
Early career
Gillian initially wanted to become a police reporter, but later, chose to focus on her own writing, because she believed that she didn’t have the skill for police reporting. After graduation, Gillian worked as a freelancer at the U.S. News & World Report, before she was hired as a feature writer at the Entertainment Weekly, in 1998. Later, she rose to become a television critic, and wrote reviews for films, but was fired in December 2008.
Career highlights
While working at the Entertainment Weekly, Gillian published three novels, of which, Sharp Objects, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar, CWA New Blood, Ian Fleming Steel Daggers and the Crime Writer’ Association Duncan Lawrie. Out of these, Gillian won in two categories. Her second novel Dark Places was adapted into a film directed by Giles Paquet-Brenner. Gillian’s third novel Gone Girl was published in 2012 and was later adapted into a movie of the same name, which released in 2014. The novel ranked No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller and sold over 2 million copies in print and digital editions.
Reputation
Some critics have accused Gillian misogyny because of the often critical depiction of female characters in her novels, but she identifies herself as a feminist.
Personal life
Gillian married Brett Nolan, a lawyer, in 2007. She met him through a college friend at Northwestern. The couple has two children, a son, Flynn, born in 2010 and daughter, Vivian, born in 2014. The family resides in Chicago, currently.
TV and books
Apart from her novels, Gillian has also published a comic book, Masks and is currently writing the script for Utopia, an HBO drama series.
Awards
- 2015
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Edgar
