Charlie Kaufman

Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. His work is distinguished by postmodernist and surrealist storytelling, with many critics considering him an auteur. Getting his start as a television writer, Kaufman gained prominence for his collaborations with directors Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry on Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), before going on to direct films himself with Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, he released a novel, Antkind.

One of the most celebrated screenwriters of his era, Kaufman has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, an Emmy Award, 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.