Fremon Craig was born in Whittier, California and graduated from UC Irvine with an English degree. When she was 13, she watched a lot of MTV, which sparked her interest in music videos. She stated that music videos were "like little short films". Spoken word poetry was what Fremon Craig initially began writing.[1]
Fremon Craig started out by writing sketch comedy and spoken word poetry in college, then landed an internship in the film division of Immortal Entertainment, where she read her first film script and began to pursue screenwriting. She developed several screenplays during the 2000s, including a modern high school retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac and a comedic remake of the 2004 French drama Intimate Strangers for Paramount Pictures. One of her scripts, Ticket to Ride, caught the attention of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman. He bought the script under his The Montecito Picture Company as a directing vehicle for himself. According to Reitman, the script was rewritten at least 15 times. The film was released, under the new title Post Grad and was instead directed by Shrek director Vicky Jenson. Post Grad was released in 2009 to critical and commercial disappointment.
2010s
In 2011 Fremon Craig completed another script titled Besties and sent the script to James L. Brooks. Brooks bought the script and it was announced that Fremon Craig would direct the film and Brooks would serve as a producer and mentor for her first film.[2] No updates were issued for the feature until August 2015, when Hailee Steinfeld was announced to star in the film. Casting continued until October of that same year, with filming commencing that same month.
The film was released by STX Entertainment in fall 2016 under its new title The Edge of Seventeen to critical praise and it was a modest financial hit. Fremon Craig kept a series of journals that helped inspire her while writing The Edge of Seventeen. She took some of these journal entries and formed them into the script.[3] For research on the film and script, Fremon Craig went to high schools and hung out with teenagers to better understand what their lives were like.[1] Fremon Craig also provided uncredited rewrites (and was briefly attached as co-screenwriter[4]) for the 2018 Transformers spin-off film, Bumblebee, which also starred Steinfeld.
Fremon Craig has cited writer-director John Hughes as an influence on writing The Edge of Seventeen,[10][11] and has mentioned Christopher Guest, Alexander Payne, Nick Hornby, and David Sedaris as inspirations.[7] She also takes inspiration from Nora Ephron by taking moments of her own life and putting them into her writing.[12] Fremon Craig stated that James L. Brooks is her comedy idol,[3] “there's nobody in the world I love more than Jim Brooks. He is the reason I wanted to be a filmmaker."[1]
Personal life
As of 2016, Fremon Craig resides in Los Angeles with her husband and young son.[13] She is a represented by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone.[14]
^"Hailee Steinfeld Gets Surprise Birthday Party at 'Bumblebee' Premiere". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-10. Christina Hodson wrote an amazing script, which drew me into this world... Kelly Fremon Craig, who wrote and directed me in Edge of Seventeen, did the rewrite, and we had wonderful conversations about developing Charlie's voice into what you see now.
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