Tom Schulman


Thomas H. Schulman is an American screenwriter best known for his semi-autobiographical screenplay Dead Poets Society. The film won the Best Screenplay Academy Award in 1989, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.
Schulman earned a BA in philosophy from his hometown university, Vanderbilt.
Though Schulman had already written a number of telemovies, Dead Poets Society was his first movie script to reach the screen. He was hired to rewrite the hit movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids shortly before the film was due to begin shooting; Schulman had just seven days to turn it from a drama into a comedy.
Other scripts written or co-written by Schulman include comedies Welcome to Mooseport, What About Bob?, Second Sight and Holy Man, which stars Eddie Murphy. The Sean Connery drama Medicine Man, originally entitled The Stand, proved a critical failure. Schulman executive produced the movie Indecent Proposal.
Schulman's only film as director to date is 1997 black comedy 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, which stars Joe Pesci as a gangster attempting to transport a bag of severed heads across the United States.
In 2009, Schulman was elected vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Schulman lives in Los Angeles with his wife, attorney Karen Gaul Schulman.