Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas began her career in film as an editorial assistant on Toxic Avenger: Part Three.  Within a few months she was lucky enough to be hired as an assistant in Jonathan Demme’s office, just as the film Silence of the Lambs was going into production.  Ms. Thomas worked for Jonathan Demme for the next 11 years, moving on to Director of Development, then Vice President of Development where she oversaw the development of dozens of projects, including Philadelphia, Devil in a Blue Dress, Adaptation and Beloved.  She went on to become a producer with Jonathan Demme, producing Ulee’s Gold and Subway Stories.

After leaving Demme’s office, Ms. Thomas wrote a screenplay for 20^th Century Fox.  For the past five years she has been a young adult novelist.  Her first book, Karma Bites (Houghton-Mifflin) was published in August 2010.  Her second book, From What I Remember (Hyperion) was published in May 2012, and was recently optioned for film by Paramount Pictures.  She is currently working on two young adult novels.  Ms. Thomas received her B.A. from Reed College and her Masters from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.