DOUGLAS J. EBOCH

BIOGRAPHY

Douglas J. Eboch’s first success in Hollywood was the kind every writer dreams of: a college assignment turned into a script that became his first sale and was made into the hit movie Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon. It broke the record for biggest September opening ever and ended up grossing $128 million domestically. Since then, he has worked as a script doctor and rewriter in the movie business.

Doug has not limited his writing to feature films, however. He has written several novels, including Totally Rad Wormhole and, with his sister, Kris Bock, the Sweet Home Alabama prequel novels, Felony Melanie in Pageant Pandemonium, Felony Melanie in the Big Smashup, and Felony Melanie and the Prank War. His short stories have been published in such magazines as Science Fictionery and The Colored Lens. He wrote the acclaimed screenwriting book The Three Stages of Screenwriting and co-authored The Hollywood Pitching Bible with Ken Aguado. He wrote the interactive stories for the Nightmare Cove game app. His children’s Christmas plays Sleepover at the Stables andMagi Road Trip have been performed by hundreds of schools, churches and children’s theaters nationwide.

Doug was born near Chicago, but at the age of five his family moved to Saudi Arabia. He spent his childhood traveling the world and visited twenty-one countries before his thirteenth birthday. The family returned to the United States as Doug was entering seventh grade and he graduated from high school in Juneau, Alaska. He is an avid skiier and loves tabletop games.

Early in his career, Doug co-wrote and directed the independent feature film Party at Sam’s which Variety called a “pleasant comedy” with “funny dialogue and a good pace.” More recently, he’s written and directed the short films, The 24 Year-Old Virgin (an in-competition selection at Palm Springs Short Film Festival) and Date Night. He has also written and directed for the stage sketch comedy group Prank Monkeys and was featured in the Heroes of the Writers Strike short film.

Doug received the Carl Sautter Memorial Screenwriting Award for Best New Voice in Feature Films from Scriptwriters Network. He has a BA in Film Production and an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California. He currently teaches screenwriting and pitching at Art Center College of Design and LMU. He is valued as a public speaker, having lectured or participated in panels or workshops at the following schools and organizations:

USC
UCLA
Loyala Marymount University
Chapman University
Singapore's MediaCorp
The Scriptwriters' Network
The Great American Pitch Fest
Southwest Writers Conference
Screenwriters World Conference
Thriving Artists Circle
WeScreenplay
Phoenix Comic-Con
Sedona Film Festival
Writers Guild of America