Carolyn Ann "Callie" Khouri (born November 27, 1957) is an American film and television screenwriter, producer, and director.

[4][5] Thelma & Louise has since grown to be considered a classic,[6][7][8] and was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in December 2016.

Following her graduation from St Mary High School in Paducah, Kentucky, she studied landscape architecture at Purdue University before changing her major to drama.

Khouri dropped out of Purdue and moved to Los Angeles, where she waited tables [14] and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and with acting teacher Peggy Feury.

While working for a company that made commercials and music videos, she began writing Thelma & Louise, her first produced screenplay.

[24][25] In an interview with The Huffington Post, she stated that adult women "are a market that I feel is underserved in the entertainment population at large.

She originally created the character Louise as a woman living in Texas who works as a communication secretary, "somebody sitting behind one of those big desks with a headset on directing people and taking calls and all that stuff.

I love to laugh, and I wanted this to be a movie you were enjoying and having a good time with because you were watching these women get their lives.

In June 2002, Khouri made her directorial debut with her adaptation of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which grossed a total of $73,839,240 worldwide.

[22][30] In 2006, Khouri created, wrote and directed the pilot for the legal television series Hollis & Rae that was produced by Steven Bochco.

[31] Khouri directed Mad Money in 2008, a crime-caper film starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes.

[32] In 2012 she developed ABC's country music drama series, Nashville, starring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere.

[33][34] Khouri's husband T Bone Burnett was the show's executive music producer and composer for the first season.

Leaving the show shortly after the first season production wrapped, Burnett later stated that he was upset with television executives' treatment of his wife.

It also receives support, as well as generous donations, from other women such as Shonda Rhimes, Meryl Streep, and Frances Fisher.

On August 23, 2014, Callie Khouri was honored by the National Women's History Museum and NWHM Los Angeles Council in "Women Making History Brunch" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, for winning an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and WGA.