“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”
Robert McKee
WORLD-RENOWNED MASTER OF STORY
After four decades lecturing internationally, Robert has been featured in many of the world’s major publications. Here’s a small sampling:
Wall Street Journal
Vanity Fair
Newsday
The Independent
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Washington Post
New York Times
The Guardian
The Aristotle of Our Time
Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, is the most sought-after screenwriting lecturer around the globe. He has dedicated the last 40 years to educating and mentoring screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, poets, documentary makers, producers, and directors internationally. Those who have learned from McKee have called him “the Aristotle of our time” because of his insight into the substance, structure, style, and principles of the grand art of story.
Peter Jackson (writer/director THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy, THE HOBBIT) has lauded him as “The Guru of Gurus.” For the writers of Pixar (creators of TOY STORY 1, 2, & 3, FINDING NEMO), McKee’s STORY Seminar is a rite of passage. Emmy Award-Winner Brian Cox also portrayed McKee in the Oscar-nominated film ADAPTATION.
McKee’s former students have garnered over 70 Academy Award Wins, 250 Academy Award nominations, 200 Emmy Award Wins, 1000 Emmy Award Nominations, 100 WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award Wins, 250 WGA Award Nominations, and 50 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award Wins, 100 DGA Award Nominations.
A winner and nominee of BAFTA for his popular Channel Four series REEL SECRETS, McKee also wrote and hosted 12 episodes of BBC’s FILMWORKS series. He was profiled by Bob Simon of 60 Minutes for CBS news.
McKee’s articles on Story have also appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the world including Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker Magazine, Swiss Business Magazine, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, CBS Morning News, BBC, Channel 4 in UK, RAI (Italy), CBN Weekly News & Morning Glory (China), MBC TV, KBS & Arirang TV, Korea Times (South Korea), Kiev Weekly, Kultura Moscow, all major TV, Radio and/or newspapers of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, France, India, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland and given seminars in all of the above countries.
Since 1984, more than 100,000 students have taken McKee’s courses at various cities around the world: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, Auckland, Singapore, Madrid, Beijing, Shanghai, Barcelona, Lisbon, Malaga, Hamburg, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome, Stockholm, São Paulo, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Beijing, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Seoul, Istanbul, Hyderabad, Mexico City and many cities regularly.
Some notable writers, directors, and actors such as Peter Jackson, Jane Campion, Andrew Stanton, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Haggis, Akiva Goldsman, William Goldman, Joan Rivers, Meg Ryan, Rob Row, David Bowie, Kirk Douglas, John Cleese, Steve Pressfield, Russell Brand, and the writers of Pixar to name a few, have taken his seminar.
McKee continues to be a project consultant to major film and television production companies such as 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, & MTV. In addition, Pixar, ABC, BBC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon, Paramount, GLOBOSAT, MNET and other international TV and Film companies regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures.
Words from McKee Alumni
McKee’s former students include notable figures from the world of writing, directing, and acting. Here’s what they have to say about Robert’s teaching: