Introduction
Amy Virginia Talkington (born 1969) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and author.
Background
Talkington was born in Dallas, Texas. Her father, Clement “Mack” Talkington, is a surgeon; her mother, Virginia Savage McAlester, is a well-known architectural historian and political activist. Her paternal grandfather, Wallace H. Savage (1912–2000), served as Mayor of Dallas from 1949 to 1951.
Talkington attended the Hockaday School in Dallas and Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. She received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.F.A. in film directing from Columbia University's School of the Arts.
Filmmaking
Talkington first received notice for her short films, all of which take as their subject a young and headstrong female protagonist. Number One Fan (1997) won the jury prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival; Second Skin (1998) was in competition the Sundance Film Festival, won several top festival prizes and was acquired by Canal +, HBO, and the Sundance Channel; and Bust (1999) was part of Fox 2000's FXM shorts series. The New Arrival (2000) was the first (and one of the only) films ever made using the “Be Here” 360-degree camera. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, was a part of the Sundance Online Film Festival, RotterdamInternational Film Festivaland became an early example of online, interactive storytelling.
Talkington wrote and directed her first feature, Night of the White Pants, in 2006. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festivaland stars Tom Wilkinson, Selma Blair, and Nick Stahl.Her recent screenwriting work includes Ungifted, Under Cover, the musical #HotFuss, an adaptation of the memoir Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, and remakes of the 1980s films Valley Girland Private Benjamin.Talkington is also developing her own novel Liv, Forever.She also wrote the screenplays for the TV movies Brave New Girl and Avalon High, for which she won a Writers Guild Award.
Writing
In March 2014, Soho Teen will publish Liv, Forever, Talkington's first young-adult novel. The book tells the story of a young girl who's killed at a boarding school and remains there as a ghost in order to solve her own murder and undo a dark,age-old conspiracy.
In addition to her fiction and script work, Talkington has written for such publications as Interview, Seventeen, Spin, CMJ, and the now-defunct Raygun and Rockpool magazines.
Personal life
Talkington lives in Los Angeles with her husband, record producer and film- music supervisor and editor Robbie Adams. They have two young daughters. Her brother, C. M. Talkington, and longtime stepbrother, Keven McAlester, are also filmmakers.