Diablo Cody
Brook Maurio (née Busey; born June 14, 1978), known professionally as Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Diablo Cody
- Writer
- producer
2003–present
3
She wrote, produced, and made her directorial debut with the comedy drama film Paradise (2013).[1][2][3] Cody has also written and produced the films Jennifer's Body (2009), Young Adult (2011), Ricki and the Flash (2015), and Tully (2018).[4]
Cody created, wrote, and produced the Showtime comedy drama series United States of Tara (2009–2011), and the Amazon Prime series One Mississippi (2015–2017). She made her Broadway debut with the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill winning the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.[5] She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Writer's Branch since 2008.[6]
Early life[edit]
Diablo Cody was born Brook Busey on June 14, 1978, in Lemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where she and her older brother Marc were raised. She is the daughter of Pam and Greg Busey.[7] Her mother is of Italian descent and her father is of German ancestry.[8] Cody was raised Apostolic Christian[9] and attended SS. Cyril & Methodius School and Benet Academy, Roman Catholic schools in the Chicago suburbs. At this time, she went by her birth name Brook.[10]
In 2000, she graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in Media.[11] While at the University of Iowa, she worked in the acquisitions department in the main university library.[12] Her first jobs were doing secretarial work at a Chicago law firm and later proofreading copy for advertisements that played on Twin Cities radio stations.
Career[edit]
2001–2004: Blogging and stripping[edit]
Cody began a parody blog called Red Secretary, detailing the (fictional) exploits of a secretary living in Belarus.[13] The events were thinly-veiled allegories for events that happened in Cody's real life, but told from the perspective of a disgruntled, English-idiom-challenged Eastern Bloc girl.
Cody's first bona fide blog appeared under the nickname Darling Girl after she had moved from Chicago to Minneapolis.[13]
In March 2003, Cody started an adult blog called The Pussy Ranch, using a pen name invented while speeding through Cody, Wyoming[14] listening to the song "El Diablo" by Arcadia.[15] On a whim, Cody signed up for amateur night at a Minneapolis strip club called the Skyway Lounge.[11][16] Having enjoyed the experience, and seeing reader interest, she eventually quit her day job to become a full-time stripper.[17] Cody also spent time working peep shows at Sex World, a Minneapolis adult novelty and DVD store.
While still stripping, Cody began writing for City Pages, an alternative Twin Cities weekly newspaper.[11] She left City Pages just before it changed editorial hands, and has since written for the now-defunct Jane magazine. In December 2007,[18] Cody began writing a column for the magazine Entertainment Weekly.
2005–2010: Breakthrough and acclaim[edit]
At the age of 27, Cody wrote her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. The memoir began after Mason Novick, who would soon become Cody's manager, showed interest in her sharp and sarcastic voice. Based on the popularity of her blog, Novick was able to secure her a publishing contract with Gotham Books.
After the completion of her book, Cody was encouraged by Mason Novick to try writing a screenplay.[10] Within months she wrote Juno, a coming-of-age story about a teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The script was completed in February 2005, and was optioned by a producer by that summer.[19] The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Elliot Page and Michael Cera.[20]
Juno was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).[21]
Personal life[edit]
In her memoir, Cody wrote fondly of her boyfriend "Jonny" (Jon Hunt). They were married from 2004 until 2007, during which time she was known in personal life as Brook Busey-Hunt.[11] In 2009, she married Dan Maurio, who worked on Chelsea Lately, on which Cody also appeared frequently as a "roundtable" guest.[51] They have three sons, born in 2010, 2012 and 2015.[52][53][54]
Cody is a friend of screenwriters Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas, Couples Retreat) and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), and they often write their screenplays together in order to get advice from one another.[55]
In light of Georgia's 2019 anti-abortion law, Cody stated that she would not have written Juno in today's reality, as critics have perceived it as an anti-abortion film.[56]
Cody is a lifelong roller coaster enthusiast and has a tattoo of the Giant Dipper at San Diego’s Belmont Park on her right arm.[57]
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