Noni White is an American writer and actress. White is best known for co-creating and writing the screenplay for ''
Newsies'' along with her husband
Bob Tzudiker
Robert "Bob" Tzudiker (born August 28, 1953) is an American writer and actor. Tzudiker is best known for co-creating and writing the screenplay for '' Newsies'' along with his wife Noni White, which was based on the real-life Newsboys' strike of ...
, which was based on the real-life
Newsboys' strike of 1899
The newsboys' strike of 1899 was a U.S. youth-led campaign to facilitate change in the way that Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst's newspapers compensated their force of newsboys or newspaper hawkers. The strikers demonstrated across N ...
. Newsies began as a "classic underdog story ripped from the history books", with writers
Tzudiker and White approaching producer
Michael Finnell
Michael Finnell is a film producer active from the 1970s to the present. He has produced several horror-comedy films, particularly with the director Joe Dante. Finnell worked for the American producer Roger Corman before emerging as a producer i ...
with an idea for a nonmusical drama; however, Disney studio head
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and CE ...
redirected the project to become a musical.
She also shares writing credit on ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...
'' ( 1996), ''
Anastasia
Anastasia (from el, Ἀναστασία, translit=Anastasía) is a feminine given name of Greek origin, derived from the Greek word (), meaning "resurrection". It is a popular name in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, where it was the most ...
'' (1997), ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'' (1999), and ''
102 Dalmatians'' (2000). She also contributed to the film ''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
'' (1994) and has written screenplays for every major studio.
The stage version of ''
Newsies'' opened March 29, 2012, and closed on August 24, 2014, grossing over $100 million. The 2017 three-day cinema showing of ''Disney's Newsies: The Broadway Musical!'' broke ticketing records to become the highest-grossing Broadway event to date from Fathom Events.
She is a member of the writers' branch of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
. She received several nominations for the
Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production
The Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Writing in a Feature Production (or Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production) is an Annie Award awarded annually, except in 1997, to the best animated fe ...
.
Noni also works as an actress, and has appeared in ''
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
''The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio'' is a 2005 American biographical film written and directed by Jane Anderson. It is based on the book by Terry Ryan, and stars Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Laura Dern. The film received a limited relea ...
'', ''
7th Heaven'' and ''
'', among many others.
"IMDB: Noni White"
Awards and nominations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Noni
Living people
American women screenwriters
Animation screenwriters
20th-century American women writers
Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Year of birth missing (living people)