Mark Heyman

Mark Heyman was perhaps best known as the screenwriter behind the acclaimed film "Black Swan" (2010). A graduate of Brown University, Heyman was studying film as a graduate student at New York University when director Darren Aronofsky visited as a guest lecturer during Heyman's final year. After an extended conversation on Aronofsky's last day, the director invited Heyman to come work at his production company, Prøtøzøa Pictures. What began as a job as Aronofsky's assistant during the post-production of "The Fountain" (2006) soon grew into a position of greater influence and responsibility, with Heyman co-producing Aronofsky's next film, "The Wrestler" (2008). Around this time, Heyman told his employer that he was interested in doing more writing, and Aronofsky informed him that he was interested in directing a movie that took place in the world of ballet. Heyman was invited to pen a script for Aronofsky to direct based on this idea, and he did so, sitting in on rehearsals at the American Ballet Theatre for several months in order to research his forthcoming script, "Black Swan" (2010). The resulting film received major acclaim and several award nominations, raising Heyman's place on the film industry's radar. He next wrote a script with his longtime friend and collaborator Craig Johnson, the drama "The Skeleton Twins" (2014), a drama starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader which Johnson directed, and which also met with major accolades. For his next project, Heyman wrote a mystery about a relationship that takes place over social media titled "XOXO" (2017).