Woolverton, Linda

Linda Woolverton (born December 19, 1952) is an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist, whose most prominent works include the screenplays and books of several acclaimed Disney films and stage musicals. She is the first woman to have written an animated feature for Disney, Beauty and the Beast (1991), which is also the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. She also co-wrote the screenplay of The Lion King (1994), provided additional story material for Mulan (1998), and adapted her own Beauty and the Beast screenplay into the book of the Broadway adaptation of the film, for which she received a Tony Award nomination and won an Olivier Award. Her recent work includes the screenplays for Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Maleficent (2014), both of which were significant box office successes. The former made her the first female screenwriter with a sole writing credit on a film that grossed $1 billion. She subsequently wrote the screenplays of the sequels for both of those films—Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019).