Born in Southern California, Katherine Fugate first started out as a
child actor on stage since she was 6. She went on to graduate from the
University of California, Riverside with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Theatre.
She blames her attraction to the arts on her aunt,
Barbara Eden of
Bezaubernde Jeannie (1965)
fame.
She was a production assistant on several films and fetched coffee for
directors before she worked at ICM, a talent and literary agency. She
worked for literary agent Barry Mendel, who
is now a successful producer. Realizing she was never meant to be an
agent, she worked as an assistant at 20th Century Fox, working on
movies like Alien 3 (1992),
Showtime - Hilfe, meine Mama ist ein Star (1992) and
Das zweite gesicht (1993), until she
became an executive herself on the Columbia Pictures lot. John Cox, who
is now a screenwriter, was then her assistant.
She says it was the Northridge Earthquake that gave her clarity to
remember she wanted to write, so she abandoned her film executive
career to become a writer.
She told our class it wasn't easy and didn't happen quickly. That
sometimes dreams take time, but you have to be responsible for them.
(That was my favorite thing she said.) She delivered Chinese food and
flowers before she finally made it.
The film Carolina - Auf der Suche nach Mr. Perfect (2003) is loosely
based on her life, with Julia Stiles
playing her. She said a lot of great things about Julia. She also
appears at Xena conventions, teaches writing seminars to new writers
(where I heard her speak) and she talks to teen groups about her
mother's alcoholism and cousin's drug abuse because she doesn't want
them to feel alone and hopes to "make a difference".
She just had a daughter she named Madeleine Barbara ("Madeleine" is
after writer Madeleine L'Engle and "Barbara" is
after her aunt). She also plays the drums and is big fan of the New
Orleans Saints.
