Jennifer Lee

Who She Was 

Jennifer Lee grew up in Rhode Island, studied English at the University of New Hampshire, and spent her twenties working in New York book publishing. At 30, she went back to school to earn a master's degree in film at Columbia University, where her screenwriting won awards. After graduation, two of her scripts were optioned but never made. Her break came in 2011, when a Columbia classmate who was directing Wreck-It Ralph asked her to help with rewrites at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She arrived in Los Angeles expecting an eight-week job. Instead, her storytelling impressed the studio so much that they asked her to join Frozen, which was struggling with its characters. She rewrote the film, co-directed it, and became the first woman to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature. Frozen won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and earned more than one billion dollars worldwide. In 2018, Lee became the first woman to lead Walt Disney Animation Studios as its chief creative officer.

Why She Matters

Jennifer Lee's path is the opposite of the child-prodigy story. She did not start in film; she was in her thirties before she committed to screenwriting, and her first professional scripts went nowhere. What carried her was craft: the ability to walk into a stalled project and find the story inside it. Her decision to rewrite Frozen around two sisters protecting each other instead of a hero fighting a villain changed one of the most successful animated films ever made. For young people, she is proof that screenwriting rewards persistence and skill more than an early start, and that a writer who truly understands story can end up running the studio.