For more than thirty years, screenwriter Leslie Dixon has been writing some of the seminal comedies of our time—from Mrs. Doubtfire to Overboard—imagining into existence iconic characters who have been brought to cinematic life by the greatest comedians. And, as if that weren’t enough, Dixon has also kept audiences on the edge of their seats with smart and suspenseful screenplays like Limitless and The Thomas Crown Affair. 

Some little known facts about Leslie Dixon:

Dixon was raised in San Francisco by a single mother. She recalls, “My delightful mother just laughed when I was rude, or bratty. I grew up to be rude and bratty.”

Dixon knew no one when she moved to Hollywood at 26. She worked as a secretary and wrote a script on the office computer in secret.

Dixon is the fourth highest grossing female screenwriter of all time, more successful than Nora Ephron. (“But we don’t gloat at the dead.”)

Photographer Dorothea Lange and painter Maynard Dixon were her grandparents. She notes, “Both my grandparents’ work goes at Sotheby’s for a million, but these artists made no real money in their lifetimes.”

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