Nancy Meyers Bio
Nancy Jane Meyers (born December 8, 1949) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer best known for her sophisticated romantic comedies. She is widely regarded as one of the most commercially successful female directors in Hollywood history. Her work often centers on independent, professionally accomplished women navigating love, family, and aging, and it is celebrated for its witty dialogue, lived-in characters, and meticulously designed production aesthetics.
Across more than four decades, Meyers has written, produced, and directed beloved films such as Private Benjamin, Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and The Intern. Through her production company, Waverly Films, she has shaped the modern romantic comedy and influenced a generation of filmmakers, actors, and production designers.
Early Life and Background
Nancy Jane Meyers was born on December 8, 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the younger of two daughters and was raised in a Jewish household in the Drexel Hill area. Her father, Irving Meyers, worked as an executive at a voting-machines manufacturer, and her mother, Patricia Meyers (née Lemisch), was an interior designer who also volunteered with the Head Start Program and the Home for the Blind.
Her interest in storytelling began at the age of twelve, after she read playwright Moss Hart’s autobiography Act One, which inspired her to act in local stage productions. Her interest in screenwriting emerged in 1967 after she saw Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate. Meyers attended Lower Merion High School in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1970 from American University with a degree in journalism.
Path to Director
After graduating from college, Meyers spent a year working in public television in Philadelphia before moving to Los Angeles at the age of twenty-two. She initially worked as a production assistant on the CBS game show The Price Is Right. Inspired by The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she shifted her focus to writing and took a job as a story editor, where she read scripts and worked with screenwriters at companies including producer Ray Stark’s Rastar.
Two years after arriving in Los Angeles, Meyers left her job to write full-time and began taking filmmaking classes, where she connected with established directors such as Martin Scorsese. She supported herself in part by running a small cheesecake business out of her home. During this period, while working as a story editor in the film division at Motown, she met Charles Shyer, with whom she would soon begin a long creative partnership that would lead directly to her first produced screenplay.
Nancy Meyers Career
Early Career (1972–1989)
Meyers began her professional career in 1972 in public television before transitioning to screenwriting in Hollywood. Her breakthrough arrived with the comedy Private Benjamin (1980), which she co-wrote with Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller. Starring Goldie Hawn as a pampered young woman who joins the U.S. Army, the film became one of the biggest box-office hits of 1980, grossing nearly $70 million, and earned Meyers an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Throughout the 1980s, Meyers continued to write and produce, including Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Protocol (1984), and Baby Boom (1987), the latter of which marked her first collaboration with Diane Keaton and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. These projects established her reputation for character-driven comedy and paved the way for her eventual move into directing.
Breakthrough (1990–2009)
In 1991, Meyers and Shyer re-teamed with Diane Keaton to remake the classic Father of the Bride, starring Steve Martin. The film was a major commercial success, grossing $90 million worldwide, and led to a sequel, Father of the Bride Part II (1995). Meyers made her directorial debut with The Parent Trap (1998), a Disney remake starring Lindsay Lohan in a dual role that grossed $92 million worldwide and showcased her gift for warm, family-oriented storytelling.
Meyers solidified her directorial voice with What Women Want (2000), starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, which became the most successful film directed by a woman at the time, grossing $370 million worldwide. She followed it with Something’s Gotta Give (2003), starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, which earned her two Golden Globe nominations and grossed $266.6 million worldwide. The Holiday (2006) and It’s Complicated (2009) further cemented her status as a leading rom-com filmmaker, with the latter earning two Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay.
2010s and Beyond (2010–Present)
Meyers continued her directorial work with The Intern (2015), a comedy starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway about a retired man who becomes a senior intern at a fashion e-commerce company. The film became another commercial hit and reflected her ongoing interest in intergenerational stories and professional women. She also produced Home Again (2017), the directorial debut of her daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer.
In September 2020, Meyers wrote and directed Father of the Bride Part 3(ish), a short charity film benefiting World Central Kitchen, released exclusively through Netflix and featuring the original cast. In 2022, Netflix announced an untitled ensemble comedy that Meyers would write, direct, and produce; in 2023, the project, working-titled Paris Paramount, was reported to be in transition between studios after budget discussions.
Notable Works and Milestones
Among Meyers’s most enduring films are Private Benjamin, The Parent Trap, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, and The Intern, each of which blended commercial appeal with character-driven storytelling. She holds the distinction of having directed the first film to gross more than $100 million in the United States with a female director at the helm, and she has earned Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Writers Guild recognition across her career.
Nancy Meyers Award Nominations
Throughout her career, Nancy Meyers has received recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and the Writers Guild of America. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Private Benjamin (1980), two Golden Globe nominations for It’s Complicated (2009) in the categories of Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Baby Boom (1987).
Nancy Meyers Awards Won
Nancy Meyers has been honored with industry awards recognizing both her writing and her filmmaking. She won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for Private Benjamin (1980), shared with Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller. The Holiday (2006) won the Teen Choice Award in the Chick Flick category in 2007.
Nancy Meyers Family
Nancy Meyers was married to filmmaker Charles Shyer from 1980 until their separation in 1999. Together they have two daughters, Annie Meyers-Shyer and Hallie Meyers-Shyer, both of whom have followed careers in the film industry, with Hallie having made her directorial debut with Home Again (2017). Meyers’s parents, Irving Meyers and Patricia Meyers, shaped her early life in Philadelphia and the Drexel Hill area, where she was raised alongside her older sister, Sally.
Personal Life
Meyers met Charles Shyer in the late 1970s while working as a story editor at Motown, and the couple married in Rome in 1980. They separated in 1999 and later divorced. In February 2020, Meyers published a personal essay about her post-divorce life as part of The New York Times’ Modern Love column. She resides in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.