# Guinevere Turner
**Guinevere Turner** (born 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American screenwriter, director, actor, and memoirist who has worked in film and television since her 1994 debut film *Go Fish*, which she co-wrote, produced, and starred in.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0877587/) • [2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) She is known for her screenplays with director [Mary Harron](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-harron), including *American Psycho* (2000), *The Notorious Bettie Page* (2005), and *Charlie Says* (2019), for her work on Showtime's *The L Word*, and for the 2023 memoir *When the World Didn't End*, about growing up in the Lyman Family cult.[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) • [3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968, Boston, Massachusetts[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0877587/) |
| Breakthrough | *Go Fish* (1994), co-written with Rose Troche; a Sundance hit picked up by the Samuel Goldwyn company that grossed $2.5 million, over ten times its budget[4](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040041.htm) • [3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) |
| Signature screenplays | *American Psycho* (2000), *The Notorious Bettie Page* (2005), *Charlie Says* (2019), all with director Mary Harron[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) |
| Television | Writer and story editor on *The L Word* (2004–2009); played the recurring character Gabby Deveaux[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) |
| Memoir | *When the World Didn't End* (Crown Publishing, 2023), built from childhood diary entries about the Lyman Family cult[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) • [5](https://cinemafemme.com/2023/08/31/guinevere-turner-on-her-book-when-the-world-didnt-end-a-memoir-and-her-groundbreaking-indie-go-fish/) |
| Teaching | Screenwriting at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, University of Georgia, UCLA, and NYU[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) |
## Go Fish and New Queer Cinema
Turner's first screenplay was *Go Fish*, written with Rose Troche, who was her girlfriend at the time and who directed the film; Turner produced it and played the central character Max, a young Chicago woman whose friends try to match her with Ely, a shy veterinarian's assistant.[6](https://www.pbs.org/video/script-to-screen-american-psycho-os8wmr/) • [4](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040041.htm) The eighty-five-minute black-and-white film was a hit at the 1994 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), opened the 1994 New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, and was picked up by the [Samuel Goldwyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-goldwyn) company, reaching a large crossover audience in its initial releases.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/05/09/a-couple-of-lesbians-sitting-around-talking-mostly-about-their-film) • [4](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040041.htm) It grossed $2.5 million, more than ten times its budget, and became a breakout of what was dubbed the "New Queer Cinema."
Turner has described the film's deliberate framing: her character never struggles with her sexuality or has a coming-out scene, because the point was to show lesbian characters dealing with the ordinary problems of dating, jobs, family, and friendship rather than making an "issue movie."[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) The film earned her a 1995 Independent Spirit Award nomination.[8](https://thefilmcollaborative.org/films/img/epk/Press_Kit_The_Owls_020310.pdf)
## Acting career
Turner's acting work runs alongside her writing. After *Go Fish* she co-starred in Cheryl Dunye's *The Watermelon Woman* (1996) as Diana, the white love interest of Dunye's character Cheryl, a Black filmmaker and video store employee.[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) Her screen credits also include *Chasing Amy* (1997), *[Preaching to the Perverted](https://www.edgepedia.org/preaching-to-the-perverted-film)* (1997), *Dogma* (1999), *American Psycho* (2000), in which she played Elizabeth, one of [Patrick Bateman](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-bateman)'s dates-turned-victims, *The Safety of Objects* (2001), *Itty Bitty Titty Committee* (2007), and *Wild Nights with Emily* (2018).[9](https://www.guinevereturner.com/actor) • [10](https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-psycho-screenwriter-guinevere-turner-on-116656999987.html) On *The L Word* she played the recurring character Gabby Deveaux.[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about)
## Screenwriting with Mary Harron
Turner met director Mary Harron through producer Christine Vachon, and the two first worked together on the biopic *The Notorious Bettie Page*.[6](https://www.pbs.org/video/script-to-screen-american-psycho-os8wmr/) While working on that film, Harron was approached to adapt [Bret Easton Ellis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bret-easton-ellis)'s controversial 1991 novel *American Psycho*, and the two put [Bettie Page](https://www.edgepedia.org/bettie-page) on hold to write it.[10](https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-psycho-screenwriter-guinevere-turner-on-116656999987.html) Despite the book's reputation for extreme violence toward women, Turner and Harron saw in it a satirical, feminist critique of hyper-masculine 1980s yuppie culture, and the 2000 film, starring [Christian Bale](https://www.edgepedia.org/christian-bale) as Patrick Bateman, became a cultural touchstone that Turner still discusses decades later.[10](https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-psycho-screenwriter-guinevere-turner-on-116656999987.html) • [11](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/major-stars-turned-down-american-psycho-remake-bret-easton-ellis/)
The Harron partnership continued with *Charlie Says* (2019), a drama about three women of the [Manson Family](https://www.edgepedia.org/manson-family), Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and [Leslie Van Houten](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-van-houten), told from their perspective rather than [Charles Manson](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-manson)'s.[12](https://bigpicturefilmclub.com/interview-guinevere-turner-memoir/) • [13](https://www.guinevereturner.com/press-1) Turner's own childhood in a cult informed her approach to the material.[13](https://www.guinevereturner.com/press-1) Her other screenwriting credits include *Bloodrayne* (2005), *Breaking the Girls* (2012), and *Saint Clare* (2023), a thriller co-scripted for star Bella Thorne.[14](https://www.guinevereturner.com/screenwriter) • [13](https://www.guinevereturner.com/press-1)
## The L Word
From 2004 to 2009 Turner was a writer and story editor on Showtime's *The L Word*, a series centered on lesbian women in Los Angeles, and she appeared on screen as Gabby Deveaux.[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) She has said she titled the show and wrote on its early seasons.[15](https://podscan.fm/podcasts/hot-takes-amp-deep-dives/episodes/guinevere-turner-on-writing-the-l-word-amp-american-psycho-taxicab-confessions-amp-more)
## Directing and teaching
Turner has written and directed seven short films, two of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) Her directing credits include *Hung* (2005), about five women who wake up to find they have grown a penis; *Sugar* (2015), in which a woman returns to prison to visit the lover she left behind; and *Post-Apocalyptic Potluck* (2017).[16](https://www.guinevereturner.com/director) She has taught screenwriting at [Sarah Lawrence College](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-lawrence-college), Columbia University, the [University of Georgia](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-georgia), UCLA, and NYU, and interviews describe her as a Cinema professor at [Syracuse University](https://www.edgepedia.org/syracuse-university).[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) • [12](https://bigpicturefilmclub.com/interview-guinevere-turner-memoir/)
## When the World Didn't End
Turner grew up in the Lyman Family, a Boston-based community of over 100 members led by the musician and writer Mel Lyman, which she now describes as a cult.[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) Members were required to listen to tapes made by Lyman, had no contact with the outside world, and could watch only films on what Lyman called "The Lord's List."[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) She spent most of her young life on a compound in Kansas, and was six years old on January 5, 1975, when members waited for a spaceship they believed would take them to Venus.[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner)
Her mother left the family when Turner was 11, and Turner and her four-year-old sister were forced to leave with her; she has said she experienced most of her abuse after leaving, while living with her mother and her mother's boyfriend.[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner) She did not recognize her childhood as a cult until age 22, when a therapist named it as one.[3](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner)
She first wrote about the childhood in a college fiction workshop, set the topic aside, and turned down book offers in her twenties out of fear the story would be sensationalized.[17](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/guinevere-turner-memoir-growing-up-in-cult-american-psycho-screenplay-lesbian-film-183234445.html) In April 2019 she published an essay in *The New Yorker* about growing up in the Lyman Family, and she expanded it into the memoir *When the World Didn't End*, published by Crown Publishing, an imprint of [Penguin Random House](https://www.edgepedia.org/penguin-random-house), in 2023.[2](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about) • [12](https://bigpicturefilmclub.com/interview-guinevere-turner-memoir/) The book is assembled from the diary entries she wrote as a child, kept as written at the time, together with entries from her teens after she was expelled from the Lyman Family.[5](https://cinemafemme.com/2023/08/31/guinevere-turner-on-her-book-when-the-world-didnt-end-a-memoir-and-her-groundbreaking-indie-go-fish/)
## References
1. [Guinevere Turner, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0877587/)
2. [About, Guinevere Turner official website](https://www.guinevereturner.com/about)
3. [From growing up in a cult to starring in cult classic lesbian films: Screenwriter Guinevere Turner, Texas Public Radio (2024)](https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner)
4. ["Go Fish" Full of Sexual Absurdities, The Virginian-Pilot (1994)](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040041.htm)
5. [Guinevere Turner on her book 'When the World Didn't End: A Memoir' and her groundbreaking indie "Go Fish", Cinema Femme (2023)](https://cinemafemme.com/2023/08/31/guinevere-turner-on-her-book-when-the-world-didnt-end-a-memoir-and-her-groundbreaking-indie-go-fish/)
6. [On Story: Script to Screen: American Psycho, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/video/script-to-screen-american-psycho-os8wmr/)
7. [A Couple of Lesbians, Sitting Around Talking (Mostly About Their Film), The New Yorker (1994)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/05/09/a-couple-of-lesbians-sitting-around-talking-mostly-about-their-film)
8. [The Owls press kit, The Film Collaborative (2010)](https://thefilmcollaborative.org/films/img/epk/Press_Kit_The_Owls_020310.pdf)
9. [Actor, Guinevere Turner official website](https://www.guinevereturner.com/actor)
10. ['American Psycho' Screenwriter on Patrick Bateman's Legacy and That Controversial Ending, Yahoo Entertainment (2015)](https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-psycho-screenwriter-guinevere-turner-on-116656999987.html)
11. [Major Stars Turned Down 'American Psycho' Remake: Author, The Daily Beast (2026)](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/major-stars-turned-down-american-psycho-remake-bret-easton-ellis/)
12. ['American Psycho' to 'The L Word': Guinevere Turner Details Her Transformative Storytelling, Big Picture Film Club (2024)](https://bigpicturefilmclub.com/interview-guinevere-turner-memoir/)
13. [Press, Guinevere Turner official website](https://www.guinevereturner.com/press-1)
14. [Screenwriter, Guinevere Turner official website](https://www.guinevereturner.com/screenwriter)
15. [Guinevere Turner on Writing The L Word & American Psycho, Hot Takes & Deep Dives (2025)](https://podscan.fm/podcasts/hot-takes-amp-deep-dives/episodes/guinevere-turner-on-writing-the-l-word-amp-american-psycho-taxicab-confessions-amp-more)
16. [Director, Guinevere Turner official website](https://www.guinevereturner.com/director)
17. [Guinevere Turner on her new memoir, about growing up in a cult, Yahoo Entertainment (2023)](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/guinevere-turner-memoir-growing-up-in-cult-american-psycho-screenplay-lesbian-film-183234445.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screenwriters and television writers › Film screenwriters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license