Susanna Fogel is an American director, screenwriter and author, best known for co-writing the 2019 film Booksmart and for co-writing and directing the 2018 action/comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me. Her many accolades include a DGA Award and nominations at the BAFTA Film Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards and the WGA Awards.
Early life and education Fogel was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where her parents were both faculty at Brown University. Her father is the neuropsychiatrist and Harvard Medical School professor Barry S. Fogel, who founded the American Neuropsychiatric Association, and her mother, Margaret Selkin Fogel, is a psychologist. Her grandfather, Daniel Fogel, was a personal lawyer to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. Her uncle, Jeremy Fogel, is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She graduated from Concord Academy in 1998.
In the summer before her senior year in college, she worked for James Schamus while he was producing Ang Lee's Hulk. She graduated from Columbia University in 2002. At Columbia, she was a writer of its 2001 Varsity Show. Her classmates included television writer and producer Lang Fisher.
Career Fogel and her writing partner Joni Lefkowitz originally wrote Life Partners as a one act play. They eventually adapted it into a screenplay which Fogel went on to direct. The film premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Fogel co-created and executive produced the Lionsgate/ABC drama series Chasing Life, which ran for two seasons.
Fogel co-wrote the script for Booksmart with Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman and was originally hired to direct the project, but was replaced during preproduction. The screenplay was later nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Frustrated by her experiences in the industry, Fogel co-wrote and directed the action-comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me. The film was released in 2018 and starred Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, the latter of whom had appeared briefly in Fogel's debut film.
She directed the pilot episodes for the television series The Wilds on Amazon, and The Flight Attendant on HBO Max, which she also Executive Produced. She has also directed episodes of Gillian Flynn’s Utopia, also for Amazon, and the return of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories for Apple TV+. The Flight Attendant was nominated in the category of Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy) at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards.
In April 2021 Fogel was awarded the DGA Award in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series category for her work on The Flight Attendant. In July 2021 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Director, also for The Flight Attendant.
She is a co-screenwriter of The Addams Family 2.
Fogel directed Cat Person, a thriller based on the short story of the same name by Kristen Roupenian, starring Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun. She also directed the 2024 comedy-drama film Winner, about the life of American whistleblower Reality Winner.
Writing career Fogel is a regular contributor to The New Yorker online.
Her novel, Nuclear Family: A Tragicomic Novel in Letters, was published in 2017.
Filmography Film Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 1997 Words of Wisdom Short film 2014 Life Partners 2018 The Spy Who Dumped Me 2019 Booksmart 2021 The Addams Family 2 2022 The Year Between 2023 Cat Person 2024 Winner
Television Year Title Creator Director Writer ExecutiveProducer Notes 2014–2015 Chasing Life (1) (7) 2017 Famous in Love (1) Play by Play (4) 2020 Amazing Stories (1) Utopia (1) The Wilds (1) The Flight Attendant (2) 2023 A Small Light (3) Miniseries 2026 Ponies (4) (6) 2026–present Little House on the Prairie
Awards and nominations AssociationYear Category WorkResultRef.Alliance of Women Film Journalists2020Best Woman ScreenwriterBooksmart British Academy Film Awards2020Best Original ScreenplayBooksmart Directors Guild of America Awards2020Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy SeriesThe Flight Attendant Dublin Film Critics Circle2020 Best Screenplay Booksmart Hollywood Critics Association2020 Best Original Screenplay Booksmart Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Awards2020 Best Original Screenplay Booksmart Primetime Emmy Awards2021 Outstanding Directing for a Comedy SeriesThe Flight Attendant St. Louis Film Critics Association2020 Best Original Screenplay Booksmart Writers Guild of America Awards2020 Best Original Screenplay Booksmart
See also List of female film and television directors List of LGBT-related films directed by women
References
External links
Susanna Fogel by Gerald Peary