Anthony McCarten Biography

Introduction, Early Life and Education

Anthony McCarten is a Film maker, novelist and writer too, who was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand on the July of 1961. He was born as the third out of 5 children to David and Mollie McCarten. David, who was an engineer and worked under an American company was bound to make long journeys away from his family too often. So it was Mollie who brought up the 5 kids. They had a maximum of 2 years age difference between them.

Anthony was more of a serious kid from his early days, and he wasn’t involved in most of the stupid pranks played by his siblings. He was more into sports and played cricket right though his school days. He attended the Herald High for Juniors and played cricket for the school’s team. After graduation, he applied for an Arts degree at Massey University. He also had a deep interest in writing and thus took classes on creative writing in Victoria University of Wellington. Brought up by his mother with all the values of a Christian, he follows Christianity as his religion. He is of New Zealand nationality and belongs to white ethnicity.

As a Writer

Having started to work from a young age, Anthony used to be a reporter for a local newspaper The Taranaki Herald, couple of years before he joined his college. After he completed his classes on creative writing, he worked as a script writer for a production group King Lear. He wrote his first novel named Spinners, which came out in 2000 and was voted as the year’s novel by Esquire magazine.

Another of his book named Death of a Superhero received an Austrian Youth Literature Prize in 2008 and was nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize, that very year. Its sequel In The Absence Of Heroes was published in 2012 and was straight in the name list for New Zealand Fiction Prize. He published his 2nd novel in 2005, named The English Harem. After his 4th novel Show of Hands was published in Europe in 2008, it was directed into a movie that was nominated in New Zealand Film awards for the Best Picture and Best Director.

Turning to Movies

His time as a screenwriter came when his work Death Of A Superhero was made a motion picture in the Toronto Film Awards. That movie won the 2011 Les Arcs European Film Festival Audience Choice Prize and Young Jury Prize. This film was premiered in different parts of the world including the United States, London, Cannes, Hawaii etc. After his work as a book and film in Show of Hands (2008), it was premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival and was also nominated to be featured in the Shanghai Film Festival, in 2009.

One of his best works is the movie The Theory of Everything (2014), which is about the life of scientist Prof. Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane Hawking. After talking to Jane about getting the rights to film her life from her autobiography Travelling to Infinity (2004), he wrote the story and produced the movie.

• Anthony McCarten
• writer