Julia Woods

**Julia Woods** is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. She is known for the animated series *Conrad’s Ring*, the comedy-drama series *Company*, and the films *Stonebridge Inn*, *The Mayor*, and *San Carlos*.

## Early Life

Julia Woods was born and raised in West Granby, Connecticut. Her family owned and operated a farm, on which her father James and mother Abigail still work. Woods has two siblings, Paul, two years older, and Catherine, three years older. Both siblings graduated from the University of Connecticut, with Paul earning a degree in Agriculture and Natural Resources and political science and Catherine studying nursing. Paul helped manage the farm while working in political advocacy groups for farmers. Catherine works as a nurse in Springfield, Massachusetts.

As a child, Woods described herself as “the black sheep” of the family. She had little interest or inclination for the family ethos of simple, traditional work, instead preferring to pursue art and other forms of higher learning. She would read a wide variety of works, with the Encyclopaedia Britannica as her favorite. More centrally, film defined her young adulthood. She saw television and movies as windows into the wider world, from which she felt excluded due to her rural locale.

## Education

Woods attended Yale University, earning a double major in Film and Media Studies and Global Affairs. Her international bent was a reaction to her “provincial” upbringing, as she described it. Woods interned at the Yale Film Archive, which she stated was a formative experience, both in terms of reaffirming her passion and in practical terms of experience and networking. Her roommate was artist and video game developer Charlotte Cohen, with whom she is still friends.

## Career

Woods’s first breakthrough came as an assistant screenwriter on *The Perry Project*, an influential meta-comedy series on HBO. Relocated to New York City, she then joined the Writers Guild of America, East. Woods began writing for many projects, and she then made her move to the big screen with her first film *Stonebridge Inn*. The film, set in 18th-century Colonial Pennsylvania, centers on Miles, the maltreated courier for the popular Stonebridge Inn. He is tasked with retrieving from Philadelphia the mysterious Englishman Dr. Madden, who specializes in an ailment from which the owner’s wife suffers.

Her next work was *The Mayor*, a black-and-white film set in a small Iowa-Minnesota border town centering on a corrupt yet charismatic new mayor and a minor bureaucrat's efforts to expose him. After these films, Woods began developing an animated series inspired by the artwork of Charlotte Cohen, particularly her silverpoint sketches. The project ended up becoming *Conrad’s Ring*, which proved Woods’s versatility on both the big screen and small screen. After the series ended, Woods took a hiatus to focus on mental health, seeing a therapist for undisclosed personal issues.

With her return to the industry, Woods released her two magnum opuses of the respective screens: the HBO series *Company* and the film *San Carlos*. *Company* is a comedy-drama mockumentary following a small graphic design company based in Albany, New York. *San Carlos*, a film set in 19th-century San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, follows a young man torn between worldly and familial callings and the priestly vocation. The movie explores the common experiences of life intertwined with the transcendent. Woods has stated that *San Carlos* is her best work, retiring after its debut. She now pursues global philanthropy.

## Personal Life

She has stated that her favorite film is *The Seventh Seal*, while her favorite television series is *The Simpsons*.

Woods lives in Manhattan with her wife.