Zach Helm
| Zach Helm | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Zachary E. Helm January 21, 1975 Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
Zach Helm (born January 21, 1975 in Santa Clara, California) is an American writer, director, and producer. The son of school teachers, Helm was raised in a town of less than 50 citizens in the Sierra Nevadas of California. He first became known for his screenplay for Stranger Than Fiction, which garnered attention and notoriety for Helm, including the National Board of Review and PEN award for Best Screenplay. He is best known internationally for his acclaimed stage play Good Canary, which has been translated and produced around the world, garnering multiple awards and accolades.
He is also known for the film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (which Helm also directed) and his one-man performance pieces, most notably his revival of Spalding Gray's Interviewing The Audience.
Helm has also spent much time developing his own "open input" approach to drama, a collaborative process focused on helping artists mine narrative material from the real world. Using interviews, physical research, devised theater techniques and dramaturgy, the egalitarian approach has been used by Helm to help artists around the world, from primary school children to amateur filmmakers.
Helm is an only child, born and raised in California. His mother taught high school English and Journalism and his father taught multiple subjects and served as a school administrator. Helm lived in rural California, often attending the small schools where his parents worked. At 13, Helm began attending Nevada Union High School where he was made to take drama as an elective. After one year of the elective, Helm decided he wanted to pursue drama as a career. He attended The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, a theater conservatory, where Helm was a merit scholar. While attending school, Helm began to work outside of the classroom, going at night to perform spoken word and monologues at bars and music events. He also began to write plays, performance pieces and monologues for others. During this time, Helm's work for himself and others began to garner attention from fellow writers, directors, producers, theater companies and film studios alike. It was also at this time that Helm experience the events that would later inspire his play Good Canary.
In 1998, in an attempt to bring new writers to Hollywood, Helm was discovered and contracted by then head of Fox2000 Laura Ziskin to participate in a one-year studio screenwriting program, similar to the early writing deals of Hollywood. During that time, Helm wrote his first screenplay, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, though it would stay at Fox despite Helm's contract expiring.
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