Robin Swicord

Robin Stender Swicord (born October 23, 1952) is an American screenwriter, film director, and playwright, best known for literary adaptations. Her notable screenplays include Little Women (1994), Matilda (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the latter of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. She wrote and directed the 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club. Swicord is the wife of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, and the mother of actresses Zoe Kazan and Maya Kazan. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors. Early life Swicord was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of Jean Carroll Swicord (née Stender) and businessman Henry "Hank" Grady Swicord II. Swicord's father was in the military, so the family moved often and she spent a large part of her childhood in Barcelona, Spain, until eventually settling in Florida. She has a brother, Steven Swicord. Swicord said she always wrote as a child, and that later as she continued writing in college, became interested in screenplays because they were visual in nature.