Biography
After cutting her teeth on numerous short films, web series and direct-to-DVD sequels, screenwriter and producer Allison Schroeder achieved her mainstream breakthrough with her Oscar-nominated screenplay for inspirational biopic "Hidden Figures" (2016). Born in Melbourne, Florida in 1978, Schroeder studied Economics at Stanford University and Film Production at the University of Southern California before earning her first credits as a production assistant on short films "Everything Looks Perfect" (2006) and "Last Day" (2006). Schroeder then made the step up to producer in her own right on the cosmetic surgery tale "August" (2007) and worked on two Seth Rogen projects, firstly as the script supervisor on "Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse" (2007) and then as a production assistant on "Pineapple Express" (2008), a position she also assumed for 15 episodes of Superman prequel "Smallville" (The WB, 2001-2011). After further showcasing her versatility with a show-co-ordinator role on a 2008 taping of "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," Schroeder began to further pursue her writing career, penning an episode of teen reboot "90210" (The CW, 2008-2013) and the critically-maligned comedic sequel, "Mean Girls 2" (2011). In 2013, Schroeder sold a script based on writer Agatha Christie's real-life 11-day disappearance to Paramount, wrote the screenplay for freshman comedy "Ladies' Man: A Made Movie" (2013) and worked on her first web series, the musical drama "Side Effects" (2013). Schroeder stayed online with relationship comedy "Shipping Julia" (2014), high school drama "Guidance" (2015) and sci-fi "Miss 2059" (2016) before she was hired to co-write the screenplay for "Hidden Figures" (2016), the true story of the female African-American unsung heroes who made pivotal contributions to NASA during the Space Race of the 1960s. Schroeder, who had interned at NASA during her Florida-based youth, and whose grandparents had worked at the space agency, proved to be the perfect fit, and alongside director and fellow writer Theodore Melfi, she picked up a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2017 Academy Awards.
