Irene Mecchi Biography
Irene Mecchi is an American writer for television, movies, newspapers, and Broadway. Her feature film writing credits include Disney’s The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules.
She is a co-author of The Lion King, Broadway, directed by Julie Taymor. The show won six Tony Awards – including Best Musical. Having celebrated its fifteenth anniversary, on Broadway, the show is one the most successful titles in entertainment history, with a remarkable worldwide footprint.
Irene Mecchi Age
Mecchi was born on September 21, 1949, in San Francisco, California, USA. She is about 69 years old as of 2019. Mecchi is an American by nationality and she belongs to the white ethnic group.
Irene Mecchi Family
Mecchi was born in the third generation of her family that lived in San Francisco, California. She later received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and continued her studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
Irene Mecchi Husband
We have no details regarding her marital status. We even don’t know whether Mecchi has children or not. She has decided to keep her personal life out of the limelight.
Irene Mecchi Education
A third-generation San Franciscan, Ms. Mecchi earned a degree in theatre from the University of California at Berkeley and continued her studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
Irene Mecchi Career
As she started her career, her ambitions for directing theater resulted her to the prestigious American Conservatory Theater (ACT), where she was intrigued by her writing by her teacher, Second City alumnus Joy Carlin, and inspired her to follow it full-time.
Her first job started when she wrote a series of Nickelodeon children’s programs like By the Way. On the Emmy Award-winning Lily Tomlin special, Lily: Sold Out, Mecchi’s first network writing task. Her subsequent TV credits include Valerie, The Popcorn Kid, and My Sister Sam’s season as a staff writer. In addition, Mecchi studied and wrote a play taken from 50 years of San Francisco’s witty observations by iconic newspaper columnist Herb Caen. The play at ACT was “work-shopped” and prompted Mecchi to publish two Caen writings books released in 1992 and 1993.
Finally, Mecchi began her association with Disney in March 1992, when she wrote a 10-minute animated short called “Recycle Rex.” That short film encouraged younger viewers to “recycle, reduce and reuse” waste materials. During the summer of 1992, Mecchi was brought on board to help further develop the characters and define their personalities. Several months later, she was joined by Jonathan Roberts in the rewriting process of the screenplay. Together, both writers tackled the difficult unresolved emotional issues in the script, which created Timon, Pumbaa, and the hyenas. One example of her touch on the film was when she added the moment when Rafiki hits Simba’s head after the visitation of his father.
She signed to co-write the screenplay of Notre Dame’s The Hunchback (which brought her together with Lion King producer, Don Hahn) and Hercules after The Lion King’s achievement. She also re-equippedwith Roger Allers to co-write The Lion King’s musical adaptation book to which a Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical was nominated. She would re-contribute extra screenplay content to The Lion King 11⁄2 with Allers later.
Mecchi served as the co-screenwriter for the Disney-Pixar film, Brave, which was co-directed by Lion King story supervisor, Brenda Chapman. In June 2013, Chapman stated she and Mecchi were developing Rumblewick at DreamWorks Animation, which went unproduced. In November 2014, it was announced Mecchi was co-writing the screenplay for Lucasfilm’s animated musical film, Strange Magic. That same year, she wrote the teleplay for NBC’s Peter Pan Live!, in which she revised the characterization of Captain Hook.
Irene Mecchi Net Worth And Salary
The American writer has an estimated net worth of $1.6 Million. She has not disclosed her yearly salary to the media.