Robert's Fans (13)

Robert McKee

Author profile

gender

male

website

http://www.mckeestory.com

genre

Nonfiction

About this author

edit data

Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee's creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Rowe whose former students include Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan.

After completing his B.A., McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway with such luminaries as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and...more Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee's creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Rowe whose former students include Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan.

After completing his B.A., McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway with such luminaries as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Will Geer. He then received the Professional Theatre Fellowship and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to earn his Master's Degree in Theatre Arts.

Upon graduating, McKee directed the Toledo Repertory Company, acted with the American Drama Festival, and became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theatre. From there he traveled to London to accept the position of Artist-In-Residence at the National Theatre where he studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic. He then returned to New York and spent the next seven years as an actor/director in various Off-Broadway, repertory and stock companies.

After deciding to move his career to film, McKee attended Cinema School at the University of Michigan. While there, he directed two short films - A DAY OFF, which he also wrote, and TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. These two films won the Cine Eagle Award, awards at the Brussels and Grenoble Film Festivals, and various prizes at the Delta, Rochester, Chicago and Baltimore Film Festivals.

In 1979, McKee moved to Los Angeles, California where he began to write screenplays and work as a story analyst for United Artists and NBC. He sold his first screenplay, DEAD FILES, to AVCO/Embassy Films, after which he joined the WGA (Writers Guild of America). His next screenplay, HARD KNOCKS, won the National Screenwriting Contest, and since then McKee has had over eight feature film screenplays purchased or optioned, including the feature film script TROPHY for Warner Bros. In addition to his screenplays, McKee has had a number of scripts produced for such critically acclaimed dramatic television series as QUINCY, M.D. (starring Jack Klugman), COLUMBO (starring Peter Falk), SPENSER: FOR HIRE and KOJAK (starring Telly Savalas).

In 1983, McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, joined the faculty of the School of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California (USC), where he began offering his now famous STORY SEMINAR class. A year later, McKee opened the course to the public and he now teaches the 3-day, 30-hour STORY SEMINAR to sold-out audiences around the world. From Los Angeles (where his course is only taught two times a year) to New York (two times a year) to Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Singapore, Barcelona and 12 other film capitals around the world, more than 50,000 students have taken the course over the last 15+ years.

Through it all, McKee continues to be a project consultant to major film and television production companies, as well major software firms (Microsoft, etc.), news departments (ABC, etc.) and more. In addition, several companies such as ABC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures.

In 2000, McKee won the prestigious 1999 International Moving Image Book Award for his best-selling book STORY (Regan Books/HarperCollins). The book, currently in its 32nd printing in the U.S. and its 19th printing in the U.K., has become required reading for film and cinema schools at such top Universities as Harvard, Yale, UCLA, and USC, and was on the LOS ANGELES TIMES best-seller list for 20 weeks.

McKee's other cr(less)

combine editions
Books by Robert McKee

Average rating: 4.20 · 1,968 ratings · 272 reviews · 6 distinct works

	Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting 4.19 avg rating — 1,868 ratings — published 1997 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Story 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Pri 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2006	My rating:
	Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Pri 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2006	My rating:
	International Banking 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1981	My rating:
	Adaptation.: The Shooting Script by Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman, Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.38 avg rating — 97 ratings — published 2002 — 3 editions	My rating:

More books by Robert McKee…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Robert McKee

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”
― Robert McKee

tags: writing

54 people liked it

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”
― Robert McKee

6 people liked it

“If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

tags: screenwriting , writing , writing-craft

4 people liked it

See all Robert McKee's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Beyond Reality: 2009-10 To Ride Hell's Chasm - Why'd you do that, Janny? spoilers possible	82	68	Nov 24, 2009 10:08am
Fantasy Book Club...: Just starting/deciding whether to plunge? NO SPOILERS	6	32	Oct 29, 2010 08:58am
Fantasy Book Club: July Discussion: Questions for the Author	25	120	Jan 10, 2011 04:44pm
Pixel of Ink Readers: What are you reading?	102	149	Feb 15, 2012 12:10pm

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Robert to Goodreads.