Catherine Hardwicke

Catherine Hardwicke
Hardwicke at the Twilight DVD premiere on March 21, 2009
Born	Helen Catherine Hardwicke (1955-10-21) October 21, 1955 (age 61) Cameron, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, production designer, screenwriter
Years active	1986–present

Catherine Hardwicke (born Helen Catherine Hardwicke;(1955-10-21)October 21, 1955) is an American film director, production designer and screenwriter. Her works include the Academy Award-nominated independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, the werewolf film Red Riding Hood, and the classic skateboarding film Lords of Dogtown. The opening weekend of Twilight was the biggest opening ever for a female director.

Hardwicke was born in Cameron, Texas, on October. 21, 1955, the daughter of Jamee Elberta (Bennett) and John Benjamin Hardwicke. She has a brother Jack, and a sister Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, who became an artist. She grew up in McAllen, Texas, on the U.S.–Mexico border, where her family owned and operated a farm along the Rio Grande, and was raised as a Presbyterian. She said the border area was wild: in high school, "her principal was stabbed three times. A friend's father was shot in the back, and another friend was murdered. And yet life could be wonderful at the same time. 'It was a Huck Finn life, too,' she said." Growing up in McAllen, Hardwicke describes it as "wild". As a child she did not attend many movies and explains, "I didn’t go to many movies. Let's be honest: It was a cultural wasteland. At the time, you could not go to a significant museum unless you drove three hours to Corpus Christi or four to San Antonio". However, there were other ways to have fun such as sneaking over to the bars and nightclubs of Mexico before she was even a legal adult. Speaking on her early life Hardwicke says, "It was a wonderful childhood. I’m dying to make a movie about it". She graduated from McAllen High School and went to the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a degree in architecture. Among her post-graduation projects was designing the solar townhouse complex built around a man-made lake on the 20-acre site, complete with waterfalls and swimming pools. The property was owned by her father.