Nancy Oliver

Nancy Oliver (born February 8, 1955) is an American playwright and screenwriter who is best known for her work on the successful TV series Six Feet Under, Oliver was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 2008 for her debut screenplay, Lars and the Real Girl.

Early life and career

Oliver was born in Syracuse, NY and raised in Framingham, Massachusetts. She began writing at an early age and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst. During this time she was involved with the university's theater department as a performer.

While attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida for theatre, Oliver met director and screenwriter Alan Ball in 1976. Together they founded the General Nonsense Theater Company, a satirical ensemble for which the two wrote, staged and starred in subversive comical sketches. She was also a member of Alarm Dog Rep. A playwright whose work includes Office, Dreams Are Funny, Calypso" and "VW as well as several plays for young people, she twice won Florida's Individual Artist Grant for Playwriting. In addition to working previously as a teacher, columnist and newspaper editor, she studied Drama at the Banff Fine Arts Center in Canada and Trinity College, Oxford. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Acting and Directing from Florida State University.