Introduction
Charles Randolph is an American screenwriter and producer for film and television. In 2015, he won the Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay along with Adam McKay for co-writing The Big Short.
Early life
Randolph was born in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from Yale Divinity School, he worked as a cultural studies and philosophy professor at various universities in Vienna, Austria (including Webster Vienna Private University) in the 1990s.
Screenwriting
In 1997, Randolph spent a weekend giving lectures at the University of Southern California. From a chance meeting with someone who worked for the Farrelly brothers, Randolph was inspired to attempt screenwriting.
Randolph has written screenplays for several films and TV movies including The Life of David Gale (2003), The Interpreter (2005), Love & Other Drugs (2010) and The Big Short (2015).
In 2016 Randolph received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Empire Award for Best Screenplay, and the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay for co-writing The Big Short with Adam McKay. He was additionally nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. Randolph invested nearly a year adapting The Big Short; three months for an initial draft and another three months to reduce the complexity.
Personal life
Randolph is married to Israeli actress Mili Avital, with whom he has two children.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Untitled Charles Randolph Project (television film) | writer and executive producer |
| 2003 | The Life of David Gale | writer |
| 2005 | The Interpreter | writer |
| 2009 | Tenderness | producer |
| 2010 | Love & Other Drugs | writer and producer |
| 2010 | The Wonderful Maladys (television pilot) | writer and executive producer |
| 2013 | The Missionary (television pilot) | writer and executive producer |
| 2015 | The Big Short | co-writer |
| 2016 | Exposed (television film) | writer and executive producer |
| 2019 | Bombshell | writer |