Steve Kloves

Stephen Keith Kloves (born March 18, 1960) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He wrote and directed the film The Fabulous Baker Boys and is mainly known for his screenplay adaptations of novels, especially for all but one of the Harry Potter films (the exception being The Order of the Phoenix) and for Wonder Boys, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Kloves, born in Austin, Texas, grew up in Sunnyvale, California, where he graduated from Fremont High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, but dropped out when he was not admitted into the film school in his third year.

As an unpaid intern for a Hollywood agent, he gained attention for a screenplay he wrote called Swings. This led to a meeting where he successfully pitched Racing with the Moon (1984).

His first experience with professional screenwriting left him wanting more interaction with the actors so that the characters would stay true to his vision. Kloves wrote The Fabulous Baker Boys and also intended it to be his directorial debut. After years of trying to sell the project in Hollywood, the film finally got off the ground and was released in 1989. The Fabulous Baker Boys did reasonably well and was critically acclaimed, but his next shot as writer/director for Flesh and Bone in 1993 fared poorly at the box office. Kloves then stopped writing for three years.

Realising that he had to return to writing to support his family, he began adapting Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys into a screenplay. Kloves was offered the chance to direct, but he declined, preferring to direct only his own original work. This was his first try at adapting another work to film. His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award after the film's release in 2000.