---
name: "Winnie Holzman"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/winnie-holzman"
fi1m_id: "winnie-holzman"
imdb_id: "nm0392848"
tmdb_id: 1222194
wikidata_id: "Q1790231"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "18 August 1954"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 74
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-17T15:10:09.844396+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Winnie Holzman

## Identity

Winnie Holzman

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/winnie-holzman
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** winnie-holzman
- **IMDb ID:** nm0392848
- **TMDB ID:** 1222194
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1790231
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Holzman, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1790231, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0392848/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1222194

Writer and producer. Born 18 August 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 18 August 1954, New York City, New York, USA
- **Active:** 1987–present
- **Also known as:** Winifred J. Holzman, Вінні Холцман
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 acting, 3 writing
- **Frequently works with:** [Ariana Grande](https://film.one/person/ariana-grande.md), [Claudia Weill](https://film.one/person/claudia-weill.md), [Cynthia Erivo](https://film.one/person/cynthia-erivo.md), [Dana Fox](https://film.one/person/dana-fox.md), [David Stone](https://film.one/person/david-stone.md), [Ellen S. Pressman](https://film.one/person/ellen-s-pressman.md), [Jonathan Bailey](https://film.one/person/jonathan-bailey.md), [Jon M. Chu](https://film.one/person/jon-m-chu.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as writer, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 84 (2), 2020s 67 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 74 to 73 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 2, Fantasy 2, Romance 2, Adventure 1, Comedy 1
- **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $1,305m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Holzman, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1790231, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0392848/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1222194

## Streaming the US now

- **Peacock:** [*Wicked*](https://film.one/film/wicked.md) (70)
- **Netflix:** [*Wicked: For Good*](https://film.one/film/wicked-for-good.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Winnie Holzman

> Winnie Holzman writes young women who cannot quite say what they mean, and makes the difficulty funny and painful. We rate her most highly when she stays close to that embarrassment; the plotting of the *Wicked* films sometimes gets in her way.

Angela Chase wants attention and is frightened of what might happen if she gets it. In *My So-Called Life* (1994), Holzman treats that uncertainty as something worth taking seriously, and finds the comedy in it too. We winced for Angela because Claire Danes makes her wish to be understood so painfully awkward to express. This is the work of Holzman's we recommend most warmly. She notices how much trouble an ordinary remark can cause.

Before creating that programme, she wrote for *thirtysomething* (1987). In *My So-Called Life*, cinematographers Charlie Lieberman and Ernest Holzman give the performances room through their unshowy photography. That restraint suits writing so concerned with everyday discomfort. The narration is less restrained, sometimes explaining what Danes has already made clear. Holzman's attention to what Angela thinks is valuable, but we do not always need to hear it spelt out.

Her book for the stage musical *Wicked* (2003) supplied the basis for the screenplay she wrote with Dana Fox for Jon M. Chu's *Wicked* (2024). The film's most useful starting point is the shared room. Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba is put in a room with Ariana Grande's popular, appalled Galinda. Learning to tolerate one another gives the film something worth following, and Holzman's interest in the difficulty of getting along survives the change of scale. It is good material for her, even when the film takes too long over it.

At 162 minutes, that first film stretches half a stage show further than the material warrants. In *Wicked: For Good* (2025), Holzman and Fox face a more awkward task under Chu: completing the friendship while joining the story to *The Wizard of Oz* (1939). They manage the friendship, but the plot keeps interrupting it to get the familiar story into place. Erivo and Grande make it worth considering for musical enthusiasts, despite its length and laboured plotting. For the clearest sense of what Holzman does well, start with *My So-Called Life*.

## Biography

Winnie Holzman is an American playwright, screenwriter and television producer. She wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical *Wicked* (2003) and co-wrote the screenplays for the film adaptations *Wicked* (2024) and *Wicked: For Good* (2025).

She created the television series *My So-Called Life* (1994–1995) and has written for *Thirtysomething* and *Once and Again*. Holzman trained at Princeton University and New York University.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Performed in (1)

- *Jerry Maguire* (1996), Fi1m 81, as Women's Group Member — [page](https://film.one/film/jerry-maguire.md)

### Wrote (3) — the average rests on these

- *Wicked: For Good* (2025), Fi1m 64, Executive Producer, Screenplay, Musical — [page](https://film.one/film/wicked-for-good.md)
- *Wicked* (2024), Fi1m 70, Musical, Screenplay, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/wicked.md)
- *My So-Called Life* (1994), Fi1m 87, Writer, Co-Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/my-so-called-life.md)

## Complete filmography (13)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Wicked: For Good* (2025), Screenplay, Musical, Executive Producer — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/wicked-for-good.md)
- *A Man on the Inside* (2024), series, as Pamela Malgrentz — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/a-man-on-the-inside.md)
- *Wicked* (2024), as Wiz-O-Mania Audience Member (uncredited) · Executive Producer, Screenplay, Musical — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/wicked.md)
- *You People* (2023), as Mrs. Greenbaum
- *Roadies* (2016), series, Writer, Executive Producer
- *Hopeless Pictures* (2005), series, Actor
- *The Comeback* (2005), series, Actor
- *Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2000), series, as Dr. Salvin — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/curb-your-enthusiasm.md)
- *Roswell* (1999), series, as Madame Vivian
- *'Til There Was You* (1997), Writer
- *Jerry Maguire* (1996), as Women's Group Member — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/jerry-maguire.md)
- *My So-Called Life* (1994), series, as Cathy Krzyzanowski · Writer, Co-Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/tv/my-so-called-life.md)
- *thirtysomething* (1987), series, Writer

## Awards

### Other awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical 2004: Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (nominated), for *Wicked*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/winnie-holzman