About Robert Mckee
Robert McKee is a well-known creative writing instructor, and is famous for his 3-day, 30-hour intensive course: Story Seminar. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. (This book is now published in 17 different languages around the world.) He is an inspiration to many of the Hollywood's screenwriters. Instead of handling only the "mechanical" aspects of fiction technique such as plot or dialogue, McKee examines the narrative structure of a work and what makes the story compelling or not.
Robert McKee (born in 1941) began this career in theater when he was 9, playing the title role in a community theater production of 'Martin the Shoemaker'. As an undergraduate, he acted in and directed more than 30 productions. Upon receiving the Evans scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's degree in English Literature. His professor of creative writing was the renowned Kenneth Thorpe Rowe. He also received the Professional Theater Fellowship and earned his Master's degree in Theater Arts.
Upon graduating, McKee acted with the American Drama Festival, directed the Toledo Repertory Company, and became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theater. Then he went to London to accept the Artist-in-Residence's position at the National Theater, where he studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic theater. Afterwards, he came back to New York and spent his next seven years as an actor and director in Broadway.
He also directed two short films: A Day Off (which was written by him), and Talk To Me Like The Rain, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. Both of his 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, where he started writing screenplays and worked 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 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 television series such as Quincy, M.E. (starring Jack Klugman), Columbo (starring Peter Falk), Spenser: for Hire and Kojak (starring Telly Savalas).
In 1983, McKee joined the faculty of the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California (USC), where he began giving his famous STORY Seminar class. And a year later, he opened the course to the public, conducting a 3-day, 30-hour intensive class to sold-out audiences around the world. Since then, more than 50,000 students have attended McKee's (Story Seminar) course, in different cities around the world. McKee's former students include 26 Academy Award winners, 125 Emmy Award winners, 19 WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award winners and 16 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award winners.
McKee's other credits include writing and presenting the BBC series Filmworks, the Channel Four series 'Reel Secrets', the BAFTA Award-winning J'ACCUSE CITIZEN KANE television program which he wrote and hosted, and the writing of Abraham, the four-hour mini-series on Turner Network Television (TNT) which starred Richard Harris, Barbara Hershey and Maximilian Schell.
Robert McKee's Books
Story Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
