Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jessica Kaplan sold her first screenplay , the adaptation of The Basic Eight for New Regency and wrote an original screenplay, entitled The Way Out, for Paramount. She died far too young at 24, robbing the world of a most original voice. Jessica was courageous, comic, tenacious, and a romantic of the highest order who believed that because you write what you are, you had better live an interesting life. The Jessica Kaplan Screenwriting Series at the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women was founded to honor Jessica's enthusiastic approach to life and her unquestionable passion for film.
She was was a passenger in a light plane piloted by her uncle when it crashed into an apartment building in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, near CBS Television City, killing all aboard.
Worked steadily as a screenwriter, although with few produced credits, until her death at 24.
Spent a year traveling in South America, then returned the the US and wrote, with new writing partner Jamie Hawkins, a pilot for a television series entitled "Telegraph Hill" based partially on her own experiences being thrust into the spotlight at a young age. The pilot was bought by CBS Television.
Sold her first screenplay, "The Powers That Be" in 1995, when she was 16 and a high-school student in Santa Monica, California. It was later rewritten by Stephen Gaghan, retitled "Havoc" and scheduled for production in 2003.
