Francesca McKnight Donatella Romana Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna (born August7, 1968), known professionally as Francesca Gregorini, is an Italian-American screenwriter and film director.

Early life

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Gregorini is the daughter of former "

Bond girl A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest or female companion of James Bond in a novel, film or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as Pussy Galore, Plenty O'Toole, Xenia Onatopp, o ...

Barbara Bach Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey (born Barbara Goldbach in 1947) is an American actress and model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in ''The Spy Who Loved Me''. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Early life Bach is a nat ...

and businessman Augusto Gregorini Savignano di Romagna from

Savignano sul Rubicone Savignano sul Rubicone ( rgn, Savgnèn) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna and about southeast of Forlì. The comune takes its name from the Ru ...

. Her mother (born Barbara Goldbach) is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and Irish descent. Gregorini is also the stepdaughter of

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

drummer

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

, with whom she is close. After boarding at

TASIS TASIS Schools, formally established as the TASIS Foundation, is a private Swiss foundation which operates a group of four international schools (including both day and boarding schools), operating in Switzerland, England, Portugal, and Puert ...

, she attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

graduating in 1990.

Career

Gregorini contributed two songs to the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

of the film ''

See Jane Run ''See Jane Run'' is a 1991 novel by Joy Fielding in the thriller genre. It was made into a TV movie in 1995. The title alludes to the Dick and Jane series of children's learn-to-read books. Synopsis The book centers on Jane Whittaker, who finds h ...

'' (2001), in which she also had a small acting role. She worked as a musician with her first CD "Sequel" (2003), where she sings, and plays the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

. Gregorini sold scripts to both

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

before co-helming, with Princess

Tatiana von Fürstenberg Princess Tatiana Desirée von Fürstenberg (''Tatiana Desirée Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg''; born February 16, 1971) is an American art curator, singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and filmmaker. Early life and family Von Fürstenberg ...

, her directorial debut ''

Tanner Hall Tanner Hall (born October 26, 1983) is an American freeskier. Biography Hall, nicknamed 'Ski Boss', was born in Kalispell, Montana where he grew up skiing at Big Mountain, now named Whitefish Mountain Resort, starting at age three. He joined ...

'', a coming of age story set in an all-girls

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, starring

Rooney Mara Patricia Rooney Mara ( ; born April 17, 1985) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, ...

. Gregorini and von Fürstenberg also co-wrote the independent film, loosely based on their own adolescent experiences. Gregorini said in an interview, "Naturally there are some autobiographical elements, combined with things we'd witness in boarding school, and many other parts that we made up completely. You will certainly find characteristics of both of us in each of the four main girls and if you spend even a half-hour with us, it will be very apparent to you, which girls are most like me and which ones are most like Tatiana." The film was an official selection at the 2009

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

. Gregorini's film '' The Truth About Emanuel''starring

Jessica Biel Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and model. She has received various accolades, including a Young Artist Award, and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Biel be ...

Kaya Scodelario Kaya Rose Scodelario-Davis ( née Humphrey; born 13 March 1992) is an English actress best known for her roles as Effy Stonem on the E4 teen drama '' Skins'' (2007–2010, 2013), and Teresa in the ''Maze Runner'' film series (2014–2018). Ot ...

and

Alfred Molina Alfred Molina (born Alfredo Molina; 24 May 1953) is a British-American actor known for his work on the stage and screen. He first rose to prominence in the West End, earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Pla ...

was selected for the US dramatic competition at the 2013

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. In summer 2018, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote that ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturi ...

'' creator

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress and screenwriter. She is best known as the creator, head writer, and star of the BBC sitcom ''Fleabag'' (2016–2019), which was based on her one-woman show of the same name. S ...

hired Gregorini as a director for the show's second series. In January 2020, Francesca Gregorini filed a lawsuit against ''Servant'' producers including

Tony Basgallop Anthony John Basgallop (born July 1968)''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' is a British television writer best known for writing ''Inside Men'' (2012), '' What Remains'' (2013), ''Servant'' (2019–present), and the ...

and M. Night Shyamalan, the production companies involved, and

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

, alleging copyright infringement for her 2013 drama film, The ''Truth About Emanuel''. Basgallop and Shyamalan responded that neither had seen her film and that any similarity is coincidence. On May 28, 2020, a federal judge threw out the copyright lawsuit against Shyamalan and Apple, ruling that the TV show is not similar enough to the film to merit a lawsuit. On July 21, 2020, the court ordered Gregorini to pay the defendants' attorneys' fees of $162,467.30. She is producing HULU's 2022 episodic series “The Dropout” about Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.

Personal life

Gregorini was in a relationship with actress

Portia de Rossi Portia Lee James DeGeneres (born Amanda Lee Rogers; 31 January 1973), known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian-American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series '' Ally McBeal'' (1998–2002), for wh ...

from 2000 to 2004. Since January 2014, she has been dating producer Morgan Marling, sister of actress

Brit Marling Brit Heyworth Marling (born August 7, 1982) is an American actress and screenwriter. She rose to prominence after starring in several films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, including ''Sound of My Voice'' (2011), ''Another Earth'' ...

References

External links

*
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregorini, Francesca 1968 births Living people 21st-century American women writers American women singer-songwriters American film directors of Italian descent Brown University alumni American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of German-Jewish descent American people of Irish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Italian emigrants to the United States Italian countesses Italian LGBT singers American LGBT singers Italian LGBT songwriters American LGBT songwriters American lesbian musicians Italian lesbian musicians LGBT nobility Lesbian songwriters Lesbian singers Musicians from Rome People educated at the American School in England Ringo Starr 20th-century American women singers Moses Brown School alumni 20th-century American singers 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people