Anne Beatts

Beatts was born in Buffalo, New York, to parents she has described as "beatniks".[1] Beatts grew to have what has been called an "aggressive, dark sensibility" [1] which she later put to use in the world of comedy. Growing up in Somers, New York, she later attended McGill University.[1]

It was at McGill University where Beatts discovered the darkly tragic humor of Jewish writers J. D. Salinger, Philip Roth, and Bruce Jay Friedman.[1] At this time, Beatts converted to Judaism.[1]

After graduating from college, Beatts joined National Lampoon magazine, a national offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. She brought her dark sense of humor to her work, and co-wrote a parody advertisement for Volkswagen which was conceived by Philip Socci for which the magazine was later sued by the car company.[2] The advertisement stated, "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today," accompanied by a photograph of a VW Beetle floating on a lake (an allusion to Kennedy's Chappaquiddick incident).

Beatts became the first female editor of National Lampoon magazine, where she worked with Michael O'Donoghue. The two became romantically involved, and both soon joined the creative team of Saturday Night Live in the early years of the program.[3]

Beatts is regarded as something of a pioneer in TV and comedy circles, as an early female comedy writer and one of the very few female writers working in the National Lampoon/SNL comedy scene of the 1970s. At SNL she was nominated for an Emmy five times, winning once. She later won a Writer's Guild Award in 2001.[4] She created the cult hit 1982 CBS series Square Pegs and appeared in several episodes (she also did uncredited acting work on the early SNL), and while the series lasted only one season it has been frequently rerun since and several of the cast members (most notably Sarah Jessica Parker) have gone on to greater fame.

Beatts wrote the book for the 1985 Ellie Greenwich jukebox musical Leader of the Pack and produced the first season of A Different World in 1987–1988.

After several credits in the 1990s, Beatts eventually moved away from writing for television. In 2006, she directed the series John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You with her writing and producing partner, Eve Brandstein for B-Girls Productions.

In 2007, Beatts served as one of the judges for the online comedy competition Project Breakout.[5]

Beatts serves as Adjunct Professor in the Writing Division at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts,[6] as well as at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She also gives private lessons on writing sketch comedy.[7]

Beatts was portrayed by Natasha Lyonne in the 2018 Netflix film A Futile and Stupid Gesture.

Beatts was featured in The Culture Pages: The Undersung in New York Magazine in the January 6, 2020, issue, in an article called "Anne Beatts was always more interesting than John Hughes" by Jen Chaney. [8]

• Anne Beatts at IMDb
• Anne Beatts at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Two part interview Anne Beatts on her involvement with NL: Part One / Part Two
• "Anne Beatts was always more interesting than John Hughes" by Jen Cheney, New York Magazine, January 6, 2020.