Brook Busey (born June 14, 1978), better known by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American screenwriter, stripper, writer, blogger, journalist, and author. She was first known for her candid chronicling of her year as a stripper in her Pussy Ranch blog and her 2006 memoir, A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. Cody achieved critical acclaim worldwide for the script of the 2007 film Juno, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
A dramedy created by Cody, called United States of Tara, based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, was picked up for 12 episodes (including pilot) by the U.S. cable TV network Showtime, the Canadian channel The Movie Network and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. After four episodes aired, the show was renewed for a second season. Two days after the second season premiere, it was renewed for a third season.
Cody, who took the pen name Diablo Cody (diablo is Spanish for "devil") after repeatedly listening to the song El Diablo by Arcadia while passing through Cody, Wyoming, attended Benet Academy, a Roman Catholic school in Lisle, Illinois. Cody and her older brother Marc grew up in Lemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Cody was raised Catholic. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a media studies degree. While at the University of Iowa, Cody was a DJ at KRUI 89.7 FM. She also worked in the acquisitions department in the main university library. Her first jobs were doing secretarial work at a Chicago law firm and later proofreading copy for advertisements that played on Twin Cities radio stations.
Cody began a parody of a weblog called Red Secretary, detailing the (fictional) exploits of a secretary living in Belarus. The events were thinly—veiled allegories for events that happened in Cody's real life, but told from the perspective of a disgruntled, English—idiom—challenged Eastern Bloc girl.
Cody's first bona fide blog appeared under the nickname Darling Girl after Cody had moved from Chicago to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cody currently resides in Los Angeles and aspires to become a director.
Cody made a small cameo appearance as herself in the U.S. broadcast television series 90210 (2008). She appeared in the same episode that marked the return of Tori Spelling as Donna Martin, in which Cody needed Spelling's character to make a dress for a red carpet event.
She is currently writing, producing, and hosting the YouTube-based web series, Red Band Trailer which she created alongside husband Dan Maurio. Cody interviews celebrities, that have included Adam Brody, Chelsea Handler, Megan Fox, Jason Bateman, and Kyle Chandler, both in a trailer and at her poolside tiki bar. The channel currently has over 4,000 subscribers and the videos have been watched over 750,000 times.
On April 6, 2010, Cody announced that she was expecting her first child with her husband Dan Maurio, who works on Chelsea Lately. The couple married in the summer of 2009. Their son Marcello Daniel Maurio was born July 27, 2010.
On a whim, Cody signed up for amateur night at a Minneapolis strip club called the Skyway Lounge. Enjoying the experience, she eventually quit her day job and took up stripping full-time. Cody also spent time working peep shows at Sex World, a Minneapolis adult novelty and DVD store. Cody soon made a retreat to journalism and a budding writing career stimulated by her skin trade days.
While still stripping, Cody began writing for City Pages, an alternative Twin Cities weekly newspaper. She left City Pages just before it changed editorial hands. Cody has since written for the now-defunct Jane magazine. In December 2007, Cody debuted as Entertainment Weekly magazine's newest columnist, joining regular contributors Mark Harris and the iconic pop horror author Stephen King on a rotational basis.
At the age of 24, Cody wrote her memoir A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. The memoir began after Mason Novick, who would soon become Cody's manager, showed interest in Cody's acerbic wit. Based on the popularity Pussy Ranch had received, he was able to secure her a publishing contract with Gotham Books.
After completion of her book, Cody was encouraged by Mason Novick to write her first screenplay. Within months she wrote Juno, a coming-of-age story about a teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera.
In July 2007, Showtime announced that it would be producing a pilot of Cody's Dreamworks television series, United States of Tara. Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, Tara is a comedy about a mother with dissociative identity disorder, starring Toni Collette. The series began filming in Spring 2008, and premiered on January 18, 2009.
In October 2007, Cody sold a script titled Girly Style to Universal Studios, and a horror script called Jennifer's Body to Fox Atomic. Released on September 18, 2009, Jennifer's Body starred Megan Fox as the title character. Cody also partially wrote the script for Burlesque, a musical film by director/screenwriter Steven Antin.
Cody is good friends with fellow screenwriters Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas, Couples Retreat) and Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) and they often write their screenplays while hanging out together, in order to get advice from one another.
Variety has reported that Cody will be adapting the Sweet Valley High book series into a movie. Cody will also produce the film adaptation with her manager, Mason Novick, Adam Siegel and Marc Platt.
Juno was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the Satellite Awards, and the Cinema for Peace Award 2008 for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter for Juno.
In the Family Guy episode The Juice is Loose, Brian will only help Stewie down from the roof if he says something nice about Diablo Cody in a mock interview. Stewie comments "She's an overpriced callgirl who got lucky once," however when Brian persists, Stewie replies "I . . . envy the tattoo artist who had that huge canvas of arm fat to work with!"
