Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean’s latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021. Red Rocket was acquired by A24 for theatrical and home entertainment release.
Baker is also the co-creator of the long-running comedy show Greg the Bunny (2005) which had incarnations on IFC TV, FOX and MTV Warren the Ape (2010).
Baker was born and raised in Summit, New Jersey. His mother was a teacher and his father was a patent attorney. He has a sister who is a professional synth-pop musician and production designer who has contributed to his films in both capacities. He became obsessed with homemade movies at a young age when his mother took him to see Universal Monster films being projected at the local library. He graduated from Gill St. Bernard’s High School in 1989. He received his B.A. in film studies from New York University through the Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to NYU, he studied non-linear editing at The New School in Greenwich Village.
Baker has established a reputation for portraying outcasts and characters from underrepresented and marginalized subcultures, frequently undocumented immigrants and sex workers, in decidedly humane and compassionate scenarios. He claims to have been directly inspired by exploitation films but he has been described as the archetype of a “trustworthy male director” in a post Me Too era. His films have stirred and encouraged a debate about sexual morality.
Baker’s influences include Ken Loach, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Mike Leigh, Steven Spielberg, Éric Rohmer, John Cassavetes, and Hal Ashby, among others.
Sean has also been a part of the Indie Film Hustle Tribe. So please enjoy my conversation with Sean Baker.
Below are all the screenplays available online. If you find any of his missing screenplays please leave the link in the comment section.
When you are done reading take a listen to Apple and Spotify’s #1 Screenwriting Podcast The Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, with guest like Oscar® Winner Eric Roth, James V. Hart, David Chase, John August, Oliver Stone and more.
(NOTE: For educational and research purposes only).
STARLET (2012)
Screenplay and Directed by Sean Baker – WILL POST ONCE AVAILABLE!
TANGERINE (2015)
Screenplay and Directed by Sean Baker – WILL POST ONCE AVAILABLE!
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017)
Screenplay and Directed by Sean Baker – Read the screenplay!
RED ROCKET (2021)
Screenplay and Directed by Sean Baker – Read the screenplay!