IRENE MECCHI
American Writer
Ms. Mecchi is an American writer who has written for print, television, live-action film and theatre. Her feature film writing credits are on Disney’s The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. She is co-author of The Lion King, Broadway, directed by Julie Taymor. The show won six Tony Awards – including Best Musical. Having celebrated its fifteenth anniversary, on Broadway, the show is one the most successful titles in entertainment history, with a remarkable worldwide footprint. Currently, there are nine productions on stages around the world. With a cumulative gross in excess of $5 billion, the title has already earned more than the biggest hit films in movie history: more than the Lord of the Rings trilogy combined, more than the six Star Wars films combined, and more than Avatar and Titanic, the #1 and #2 highest-grossing films in movie history, combined. Ms. Mechhi adapted the Broadway musical, Annie, for ABC and earned a writing credit on Pixar’s 2012 release, Brave – which won the Oscar for best Animated film. She is currently adapting the classic A Star Is Born as a stage musical for Warner Theatricals and is working on an original feature at Lucasfilm that will be released in 2015. A third generation San Franciscan, Ms. Mecchi earned a degree in theatre from the University of California at Berkeley and continued her studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.