Carol Black (writer)

Carol Black
Bornc. 1957 or 1958 (age 66–67)
Alma materSwarthmore College
Occupation(s)Writer and filmmaker
Years active1983–present
SpouseNeal Marlens
Children2
Websitecarolblack.org

Carol Black (born c. 1957/1958)[1] is an American writer and filmmaker. She is known as the creator and writer-producer of the television series The Wonder Years and Ellen, both with her husband and writing partner Neal Marlens.[2] Black and Marlens received the 1988 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for The Wonder Years and the 1989 Writers Guild of America award after the first six-episode season had aired.[3][4]

Outside of her television career, Black is known for writing the screenplay for the controversial comedy film, Soul Man, which depicts a white student donning blackface in order to attend Harvard on an affirmative action scholarship.

Black studied education and literature at Swarthmore College and UCLA, and after the birth of her children, left her career in the entertainment industry to become involved in the unschooling and alternative education movement and later to make independent nonprofit films.[5]

In 2010, she directed the documentary film Schooling the World: The fellow White Man’s Last Burden about the impacts of institutional schooling on small-scale land-based societies. Schooling the World premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival,[5] and features Wade Davis, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, Manish Jain, and Dolma Tsering. She also co-directed with Marlens the 2005 mockumentary The Lost People of Mountain Village, about excessive real estate development in the Rocky Mountains, which premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride.[6]

References

  1. ^ Haitman, Diane (November 30, 1988). "TV's '60s: War and Remembrance : Success Turns Into Mixed Blessing for Creators of 'Wonder Years'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2020. ...the husband and wife executive-producing team of Marlens, 32, and Black, 30.
  2. ^ Benson, Jim (March 16, 1989). "'Wonder' Creators Run Out of Yeast". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020. Neal Marlens and Carol Black, the husband-and-wife team who created the popular ABC series The Wonder Years and now are its writers and executive producers, are about to leave the program to avoid getting burned out, they say, by a demanding work schedule.
  3. ^ "The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television". Archived from the original on February 8, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  4. ^ Haithman, Diane (November 30, 1988). "Success Turns Into Mixed Blessing for Creators of 'Wonder Years'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  5. ^ a b "Q and A: Carol Black". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. October 10, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  6. ^ "Filmmakers mock luxury of vacancy in Telluride 'burb". The Denver Post. Colorado. March 1, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2016.