Charlie Kaufman

Charles Stuart Kaufman (born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He both wrote and directed the films Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, Kaufman made his literary debut with the release of his first novel, Antkind. One of the most celebrated screenwriters of his era, Kaufman has received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, and a Writers Guild of America Award. Film critic Roger Ebert called Synecdoche, New York "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. Three of Kaufman's scripts appear in the Writers Guild of America's list of the 101 greatest movie screenplays ever written.

Works

7.9

Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show

It had all the makings of a huge television success: a white-hot comic at the helm, a coveted primetime slot, and a pantheon of future comedy legends in the cast and crew. So why did The Dana Carvey Show—with a writers room and cast including then unknowns Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K., Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, and more— crash and burn so spectacularly? TOO FUNNY TO FAIL tells the hilarious true story of a crew of genius misfits who set out to make comedy history… and succeeded in a way they never intended.

Release Date2017-10-20

Charactersd Self (archive footage)

Vote Count61

7.9

Michel Gondry: Do It Yourself

A portrait of French filmmaker Michel Gondry, creator, for three decades, of an imperfect, astonishing, fascinating, damaged and poetic work.

Release Date2023-09-04

Charactersd Self - Screenwriter

Vote Count5

None of Them Are You: Crafting Anomalisa

A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's 2015 stop-motion animated drama Anomalisa.

Release Date2016-06-07

Charactersd Self

Ned and Stacey
7.2

Ned and Stacey

A self-centered ad exec and a liberal journalist enter into a marriage of convenience. He's trying to boost his business image; she likes his apartment.

Release Date1995-09-11

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count3

Vote Count12

Get a Life
7.4

Get a Life

Surreal, twisted and hilariously funny, Get a Life is the ultimate anti-sitcom. Chris Peterson is a 30-year-old paperboy who still lives with his parents and who seems to have an ever decreasing grip on reality.

Release Date1990-09-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count2

Vote Count20

Moral Orel
8.0

Moral Orel

Orel is an 11-year-old boy who loves church. His unbridled enthusiasm for piousness and his misinterpretation of religious morals often lead to disastrous results, including self-mutilation and crack addiction. No matter how much trouble he gets into, his reverence always keeps him cheery.

Release Date2005-12-12

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Episode Count1

Vote Count87

7.8

Her

In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.

Release Date2013-12-18

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count14581

The Edge
7.6

The Edge

The Edge is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Mirkin which ran on the Fox Network from 1992 to 1993.

Release Date1992-09-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count19

Vote Count5

8.1

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

Release Date2004-03-19

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Vote Count15480

7.0

Kung Fu Panda 2

Po and his friends fight to stop a peacock villain from conquering China with a deadly new weapon, but first the Dragon Warrior must come to terms with his past.

Release Date2011-05-25

DepartmentWriting

JobScript Consultant

Vote Count7428

The Trouble with Larry
6.0

The Trouble with Larry

The Trouble with Larry is an American sitcom that aired from August 25, 1993 to September 8, 1993 on CBS. It starred Bronson Pinchot as Larry Burton, a man returning home to Syracuse after being presumed dead for many years.

Release Date1993-08-25

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count1

6.1

Ad Astra

The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.

Release Date2019-09-17

DepartmentWriting

JobScript Consultant

Vote Count6811

Misery Loves Company
4.0

Misery Loves Company

Misery Loves Company is an American sitcom television series that aired from October 1 until October 22, 1995.

Release Date1995-10-01

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Episode Count8

Vote Count1

The Dana Carvey Show
5.9

The Dana Carvey Show

Comics offer their takes on controversial subjects.

Release Date1996-03-12

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count8

Vote Count14

6.6

Orion and the Dark

A boy with an active imagination faces his fears on an unforgettable journey through the night with his new friend: a giant, smiling creature named Dark.

Release Date2024-02-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count562

7.4

Being John Malkovich

One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters its mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.

Release Date1999-10-29

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count4497

6.6

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.

Release Date2020-08-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2016

6.7

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. Television producer by day, CIA assassin by night, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA at the height of his TV career and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.

Release Date2002-12-31

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count1172

7.5

Synecdoche, New York

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Release Date2008-10-24

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count1462

7.4

Adaptation.

Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean's book, become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the others'.

Release Date2002-12-06

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count2565

IQ 83

IQ 83

A group of scientists conduct DNA experiments which result in the release of an airborne disease that gradually lowers the IQ of those infected.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

7.1

Anomalisa

An inspirational speaker becomes reinvigorated after meeting a lively woman who shakes up his mundane existence.

Release Date2015-12-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1740

6.0

Human Nature

Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.

Release Date2001-09-12

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count267

5.8

Darkest Miriam

Miriam Gordon lives in a fog of grief while working in a downtown public library branch. When a burgeoning love affair coincides with her receiving a series of oddly threatening letters, Miriam's sheltered existence is cracked open.

Release Date2025-03-28

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count5

5.6

The Actor

Paul Cole finds himself stranded in a mysterious small town with no memory of who he is or how he got here. As bits and pieces of his past slowly emerge, he attempts to find his way home, but time is slippery, appearances can't be trusted, and it's unclear which of his identities is real.

Release Date2025-03-14

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count8

The Memory Police

On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, things have begun to disappear: at first little things: ribbons and then roses. Soon, photographs. However, a rare few are able to remember all that no longer exists – but the Memory Police are determined to make sure that what has been erased, remains forgotten forever. When a young novelist realizes her book editor is one of those able to still remember, she hides him in a room beneath her floorboards. As the world closes in around them, they struggle defiantly to hold onto the truth.

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Later the War

The original short story follows a man who manufactures dreams for people but ultimately begins creating nightmares for them. Specific details of the adaptation are unknown.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

7.4

Beth Stelling: Girl Daddy

Comedian Beth Stelling takes the stage at Minneapolis’ Varsity Theater to talk sex, drugs, and babies in her hilarious new special Beth Stelling: Girl Daddy. Musing on the ways that sexual pleasure is different for men and women, Stelling’s not ashamed to admit that she always thinks her massage therapist is falling for her – and is not afraid to call male comedians out for making lazy #MeToo jokes. Stelling also shares her takes on being a relationship person, having reverse body dysmorphia, alternative wedding traditions, her relationship with her Orlando-based actor father whose personality is “Fox News,” talking sex with her may-as-well-be-virginal mom, and how her sisters just love to make babies.

Release Date2020-08-20

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count6

Anomalisa Tribute: Michael’s Speech

A scene adapted from Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson's film 'Anomalisa,' reinterpreted in live action.

DepartmentWriting

JobOriginal Film Writer

4.0

Waking Up

Martin Brown, who dreams he's traveling backwards through time, attempts to fix his relationship with his recently deceased wife, Jennifer.

Release Date2010-10-16

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count2

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