Frank Darabont

Frank Darabont
Darabont at the 2011 PaleyFest.
Born	Ferenc Árpád Darabont (1959-01-28) January 28, 1959 (age 58) Montbéliard, France
Other names	Frank A. Darabont Ardeth Bey
Education	Hollywood High School
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director, producer
Years active	1981–present

Frank Árpád Darabont (born Darabont Ferenc Árpád; January 28, 1959) is a French-Hungarian-Americanfilm director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In his early career he was primarily a screenwriter for horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob and The Fly II. As a director he is known for his film adaptations of Stephen King novels such as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist.

Darabont also developed and executive produced the first season and part of the second season of the AMC horror series The Walking Dead and created the TNT neo-noir series Mob City.

Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbéliard, Doubs, France. His parents fled Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. When he was still an infant, his family moved to the United States, settling in Chicago. When Darabont was five the family moved to Los Angeles. Darabont was inspired to pursue a career in film after seeing the George Lucas film THX 1138 in his youth. Darabont graduated from Hollywood High School in 1977 and did not attend college. His first job after finishing school was working at the famed Hollywood Egyptian Theater at the concession stand and as a seat finder, watching movies for free. He claims he got his writing skills from "endless hours" of writing at a desk on a typewriter in his free time, and from his childhood friend Cody Hills.