Early life

Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family on November 19, 1958, the son of Helen and Myron Kaufman. He grew up in Massapequa, New York before moving to West Hartford, Connecticut where he graduated high school. While attending high school, Kaufman was part of the school's drama club, performing in numerous productions before landing the lead role in a production of Play It Again, Sam during his senior year.

After high school graduation, Kaufman attended Boston University before transferring to New York University where he studied film. While attending New York University, Kaufman met Paul Proch, with whom he would write many unproduced scripts and plays.

Career

Between 1983 and 1984, Kaufman and Proch wrote comedic articles and spoofs on spec for National Lampoon. His work included parodies of Kurt Vonnegut and the X-Men. Kaufman and Proch tried to get their screenplays produced, sending them to many people in film industry. The only response the two ever received for their work was a supportive letter from Alan Arkin in regards to their screenplay titled Purely Coincidental. In hope of finding talent agents the two began to write spec scripts for television series such as Married... With Children and Newhart. In 1991, Kaufman moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in search of more job prospects. Kaufman got his start in television by writing two episodes for Chris Elliott's Get a Life during the 1991-1992 season. During the 1993-1994 season, Kaufman worked on Fox's sketch comedy show The Edge. Kaufman wrote some pilot scripts while working as a television writer, but none of them were produced. He later worked as a writer for Ned and Stacey and The Dana Carvey Show.

He first came to mainstream notice as the writer of Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, earning an Academy Award nomination for his effort and winning a BAFTA. He wrote the script on spec in 1994, sending it to many companies and studios, all turning it down. The script eventually reached Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it on to his then-son-in-law Jonze, who agreed to direct the film

After the success of Being John Malkovich, another one of Kaufman's screenplays was produced titled Human Nature, which was directed by Michel Gondry and produced by Kaufman and Jonze.

Kaufman and Jonze reunited yet again as the director screenwriter respectively for Adaptation, which earned him another Academy Award nomination and his second BAFTA. Adaptation featured a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his fictional brother, Donald, who is credited as writer of the film along with Kaufman. The idea came to Kaufman while attempting to adapt Susan Orlean's novel The Orchid Thief into film. Struggling with writer's block, Kaufman turned the script into an exaggerated account of his struggles with adapting the screenplay.

Kaufman wrote the screenplay for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, a biopic based on the "unauthorized autobiography" of Chuck Barris, the creator of such popular game shows as The Dating Game and host of The Gong Show. The film focuses on Barris's claim to have been a CIA hit man. It was George Clooney's directorial debut. Kaufman criticized Clooney for making drastic alterations to the script without consulting him (instead, Clooney consulted Barris). Kaufman said in an interview with William Arnold: "The usual thing for a writer is to deliver a script and then disappear. That's not for me. I want to be involved from beginning to end. And these directors know that, and respect it."

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, released in 2004, was Kaufman's second pairing with director Michel Gondry. Kaufman won his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and third BAFTA for the film together with Gondry and French artist Pierre Bismuth. The trio also received the prestigious PEN American Center 2005 prize for screenplay for the film. David Edelstein described the film in Slate as "The Awful Truth turned inside-out by Philip K. Dick, with nods to Samuel Beckett, Chris Marker, John Guare—the greatest dramatists of our modern fractured consciousness. But the weave is pure Kaufman."

After agreeing to participate in Carter Burwell's Theater of the New Ear, a double bill "sound play", Kaufman wrote and directed the audio play Hope Leaves the Theater, while the other play in the production, titled Sawbones, was written and directed by the Coen Brothers Theater of the New Ear debuted in April 2005 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. Due to scheduling conflicts, later productions of Theater of the New Ear did not feature the Coen's play, replacing it with Anomalisa which was written by Kaufman under the pseudonym "'Francis Fregoli".

Kaufman made his directorial film debut with the postmodern film Synecdoche, New York. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. The idea for the film came when Kaufman and Spike Jonze were approached to direct a horror film. Rather than make a conventional horror film, the two agreed to have the film deal with things they found frightening in real life, rather than typical horror film tropes. Kaufman decided to direct the film after Jonze left the project as the director to direct Where the Wild Things Are instead.

Kaufman was slated to write and direct a film with the working title Frank or Francis. Few details have been confirmed about the plot except that it is a musical comedy about internet anger culture. In July 2012, Jack Black, who was to star in the film, revealed in an interview that funding for the project had fallen through, as the studio was unsure about its chances for success after the financial failure of Kaufman's last directorial effort. Although the future of the project is not certain, Kaufman says "It could still happen. It would have to be reinvented, though. We had a whole cast and we were headed into pre-production. So, I’d have to get people back and who knows if they would be interested anymore. But, at this point, we don’t have any money, so that’s a secondary concern."

Dino Stamatopoulos, a former colleague of Kaufman's from The Dana Carvey Show, became interested in adapting Kaufman's Anomalisa play script into a stop motion animated film. With Kaufman's permission, Stamatopoulos turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in order to fund the film. The Kickstarter page for the film was set up in August 2012 and by the time funding had ended $406,237 was pledged. It had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2015, receiving universal acclaim from critics.

Trying to make a return to television, Kaufman directed and wrote a pilot for FX titled How and Why in 2014. The plot was described as being about a "man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works but is clueless about life". FX decided to not pick up the pilot, but it has been shopped to other outlets.

Themes and influences

Kaufman's works explore such universal themes as identity crisis, mortality, and the meaning of life through a metaphysical or parapsychological framework. While his work resists labels, it is sometimes described as surrealist. He sometimes includes fictionalized "facts" about his life in his work, notably Adaptation and Hope Leaves the Theater.

Apes recur in Kaufman's work: in Being John Malkovich Lotte has a pet chimp named Elijah, in Human Nature Puff was raised as an ape, in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Penny dreams about an ape, and in Adaptation the original deus ex machina was a swamp ape.

Miscommunication between people is also a major recurring theme. In Being John Malkovich various characters are misheard or cannot comprehend what others are saying; one character even claims to have a speech impediment despite speaking perfectly clearly. In Adaptation the character of Charlie fails to speak his mind, with his internal monologue often worrying about what he should be saying. In Synecdoche, New York Sammy follows Caden for twenty years and eventually gains a seemingly omniscient knowledge of Caden's thoughts, which he voices to Hazel during his audition to play Caden in a play.

Among Kaufman's favorite writers/directors and influences are Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Stanisław Lem, Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, Italo Svevo, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, and Patricia Highsmith.

Personal life

Kaufman lived and worked for a time during the late 1980s in Minneapolis, answering calls about missing newspapers at the Star Tribune, before moving to Los Angeles.

He currently lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife and their child.

Work

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Executive producer	Notes
1999	Being John Malkovich		Yes		Yes	BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Screenplay Saturn Award for Best Writing Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
2001	Human Nature		Yes	Yes		National Board of Review Award for Best Screenplay
2002	Adaptation		Yes		Yes	BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay National Board of Review Award for Best Screenplay New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated-Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
2002	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind		Yes			Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay National Board of Review Award for Best Screenplay
2004	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind		Yes		Yes	Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay London Film Critics' Circle Award for Screenwriter of the Year National Board of Review Award for Best Original Screenplay Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated-Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Writing
2008	Synecdoche, New York	Yes	Yes	Yes		Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature Robert Altman Award Nominated-Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Palme d'Or Nominated-Caméra d'Or Nominated-Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated-Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Screenplay
2015	Anomalisa	Yes	Yes	Yes		Co-directed by Duke Johnson Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominated-Independent Spirit Award for Best Film Nominated-Independent Spirit Award for Best Director Nominated-Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Golden Lion Nominated-Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated-Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated-National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay Nominated-Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures Nominated-Annie Award for Directing in a Feature Production

Television

Year	Title	Credit	Notes
1991-1992	Get a Life	Writer	2 episodes
1992-1993	The Edge	Writer	20 episodes
1993	The Trouble with Larry	Story editor	7 episodes
1995	Misery Loves Company	Co-producer	6 episodes
1996	The Dana Carvey Show	Writer	8 episodes
1996-1997	Ned and Stacey	Writer and producer	22 episodes
2006	Moral Orel	Story	Uncredited Episode: "Love"
2014	How and Why	Director, writer, and executive producer	Pilot

Plays

Year	Title	Credit	Notes
2005	Hope Leaves the Theater	Director and writer
2005	Anomalisa	Director and writer	Under the pseudonym Francis Fregoli

Lyrics

Year	Soundtrack	Songs
2001	Human Nature	"Hair Everywhere" and "Here with You"
2008	Synecdoche, New York	"Synecdoche Song", "Gravity", "I'm Just a Little Person", and "Song for Caden"
2015	Anomalisa	"None of Them are You"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]