Stephen Chbosky is an American novel writer, screenwriter, and movie director well known for the coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He also created the screenplay for the 2005 movie Rent, and was co-creator, executive producer, and author of the Cbs TV series Jericho, which began airing in 2006.
Chbosky started life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and brought up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Fred, a consultant to Cfos, and Lea Chbosky, a tax preparer, and is of Polish, Slovak, Irish and Scottish descent. As a teenager, Chbosky enjoyed a good blend of the classics, horror, and fantasy. He was heavily influenced by J. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and the composing of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams. Chbosky finished Upper St. Clair university in 1988, around which time he met Stewart Stern, screenwriter of the 1955 James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause. Stern became Chbosky's good friend and mentor, and proved a major influence on Chbosky's career.
(Stephen Chbosky photo #2)
In 1992, Chbosky finished the High school of Southern California's screenwriting program. He created, directed, and acted in the 1995 independent movie The Four Corners of Nowhere, which got Chbosky his first agent, was accepted by the Sundance Movie Festival, and became one of the first movies shown on the Sundance Channel.
Stephen Chbosky
