Ricky Lee

Filipino screenwriter (born 1948) Ricardo Arreola Lee ONA (born March 19, 1947) is a Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright. Since 1973, he has written more than 200 film screenplays and collaborated with many of the Philippines' most notable film directors, including Lino Brocka, Marilou Diaz-Abaya, and Ishmael Bernal. Many of the films he wrote have been screened at international film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin. For his contributions to the Philippine film industry, Lee was proclaimed a National Artist of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022. Biography Early life Lee grew up with his relatives in Daet, Camarines Norte. His mother died when he was five years old, and he saw his father only on a few occasions. He completed his primary and secondary education in the same town. It is said that Lee often sneaked into film houses and buried himself in books at the school library, tearing out pages with striking images. An intelligent student, he consistently topped his class from grade school to high school. His writing career began when he won his first national literary award for a short story he wrote while still in high scho