Olivia Hetreed
Biography
Biography
Multifaceted storyteller Olivia Hetreed began her career in the late 1980s as an assistant editor on the alternative British comedy series "The Comic Strip Presents..." Her first full-fledged editing gig came in 1990 on Michael Winterbottom's wartime romance "Forget About Me," starring Ewen Bremner and Brian McCardie. In 1991, Hetreed's screenwriting career took off; she wrote and edited "A Small Dance," an intimate drama about a shy, single woman coping with pregnancy, and went on to work on low-profile film and television projects. "Girl with a Pearl Earring," a 2003 adaptation of the novel by Tracy Chevalier, brought Hetreed's writing international acclaim. She received a BAFTA nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the film was nominated for three Academy Awards. That same year, Hetreed served as writer on a BBC miniseries modernizing Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." "What Katy Did" was her next adaptation, based on the novel by 19th century young adult author Susan Coolidge. In 2007, Hetreed joined "Roman Mysteries," a fantastical period drama relating the myriad adventures of four youths from Ancient Rome. Hetreed penned three of the series' ten episodes. Hetreed returned to big screen work in 2011 when she adapted the work of Emile Brontë for director Andrea Arnold's acclaimed retelling of "Wuthering Heights."