Title:Contributing WriterEducation:University of California, Los AngelesLocation:Ojai, CaliforniaExpertise:Plant-based food, cookbooks, filmAnna Thomas is a two-time James Beard Award–winning cookbook author and Academy Award–nominated screenwriter whose first book The Vegetarian Epicure significantly contributed to the rise of the American vegetarian movement in the 1970s. Anna wrote The Vegetarian Epicure while she was a film student at UCLA, when vegetarian cookbooks were rare and largely focused on health at the expense of flavor. Not knowing much about publishing at the time, Anna sent her book to the agent who had represented the novel Jaws—who, despite never having represented a cookbook before, took her on as a client and secured a deal with Julia Child’s editor Judith Jones. The book was a wild success, and Anna used the advance on its sequel to pay for the production of her first feature film.Anna has won the James Beard Award for her EatingWell article “The Soup for Life” and for her cookbook Love Soup. Her other cookbooks include The New Vegetarian Epicure and Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore: Dinner for Everyone at the Table, and she has contributed to Gourmet, Fine Cooking and the Los Angeles Times. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 1983 film El Norte; she also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated My Family, Mi Familia and the Oscar-winning Frida. In 2010, her two careers intersected when she collaborated with her good friend Roger Ebert on his cookbook The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.Anna lives in Ojai, California, and heads the screenwriting department at the American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the only person ever to attend both the James Beard Awards and the Academy Awards as a nominee, and she says the food awards are a lot more fun.B.A. and M.A. in Film/Cinema/Video Studies, University of California, Los AngelesEatingWell, aDotdash Meredith Brand, has been publishing award-winning journalism about food, nutrition and sustainability since 1990. Our mission is to share flavor-packed recipes from around the world, celebrating fresh ingredients and the farmers, artisans and chefs who bring them to our table. Through science-backed nutrition advice and smart stories about sustainability, we help readers live their best lives. Learn moreabout usand oureditorial process.
Title:Contributing WriterEducation:University of California, Los AngelesLocation:Ojai, CaliforniaExpertise:Plant-based food, cookbooks, film
Title:Contributing Writer
Education:University of California, Los Angeles
Location:Ojai, California
Expertise:Plant-based food, cookbooks, film
Anna Thomas is a two-time James Beard Award–winning cookbook author and Academy Award–nominated screenwriter whose first book The Vegetarian Epicure significantly contributed to the rise of the American vegetarian movement in the 1970s. Anna wrote The Vegetarian Epicure while she was a film student at UCLA, when vegetarian cookbooks were rare and largely focused on health at the expense of flavor. Not knowing much about publishing at the time, Anna sent her book to the agent who had represented the novel Jaws—who, despite never having represented a cookbook before, took her on as a client and secured a deal with Julia Child’s editor Judith Jones. The book was a wild success, and Anna used the advance on its sequel to pay for the production of her first feature film.Anna has won the James Beard Award for her EatingWell article “The Soup for Life” and for her cookbook Love Soup. Her other cookbooks include The New Vegetarian Epicure and Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore: Dinner for Everyone at the Table, and she has contributed to Gourmet, Fine Cooking and the Los Angeles Times. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 1983 film El Norte; she also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated My Family, Mi Familia and the Oscar-winning Frida. In 2010, her two careers intersected when she collaborated with her good friend Roger Ebert on his cookbook The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.Anna lives in Ojai, California, and heads the screenwriting department at the American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the only person ever to attend both the James Beard Awards and the Academy Awards as a nominee, and she says the food awards are a lot more fun.
Anna Thomas is a two-time James Beard Award–winning cookbook author and Academy Award–nominated screenwriter whose first book The Vegetarian Epicure significantly contributed to the rise of the American vegetarian movement in the 1970s. Anna wrote The Vegetarian Epicure while she was a film student at UCLA, when vegetarian cookbooks were rare and largely focused on health at the expense of flavor. Not knowing much about publishing at the time, Anna sent her book to the agent who had represented the novel Jaws—who, despite never having represented a cookbook before, took her on as a client and secured a deal with Julia Child’s editor Judith Jones. The book was a wild success, and Anna used the advance on its sequel to pay for the production of her first feature film.
Anna has won the James Beard Award for her EatingWell article “The Soup for Life” and for her cookbook Love Soup. Her other cookbooks include The New Vegetarian Epicure and Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore: Dinner for Everyone at the Table, and she has contributed to Gourmet, Fine Cooking and the Los Angeles Times. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 1983 film El Norte; she also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated My Family, Mi Familia and the Oscar-winning Frida. In 2010, her two careers intersected when she collaborated with her good friend Roger Ebert on his cookbook The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.
Anna lives in Ojai, California, and heads the screenwriting department at the American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the only person ever to attend both the James Beard Awards and the Academy Awards as a nominee, and she says the food awards are a lot more fun.
B.A. and M.A. in Film/Cinema/Video Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
EatingWell, aDotdash Meredith Brand, has been publishing award-winning journalism about food, nutrition and sustainability since 1990. Our mission is to share flavor-packed recipes from around the world, celebrating fresh ingredients and the farmers, artisans and chefs who bring them to our table. Through science-backed nutrition advice and smart stories about sustainability, we help readers live their best lives. Learn moreabout usand oureditorial process.
