Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes. Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego. Later he wrote and directed another high school film, Say Anything... (1989), followed by Singles (1992), a story of twentysomethings which was woven together with a soundtrack centering on Seattle's burgeoning grunge music scene. He landed his biggest hit with Jerry Maguire (1996). Then Crowe was given a green-light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical film Almost Famous (2000). The story centers on a teenage music journalist who is on tour with an up-and-coming band; it gives insight into his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. For his screenplay, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In late 1999, Crowe's second book was published, a question and answer session with filmmaker Billy Wilder entitled Conversations with Wilder. After the success of Almost Famous, further films followed including the psychological thriller Vanilla Sky (2001), the romantic comedy Elizabethtown (2005), the family-friendly film We Bought a Zoo (2011), and the romantic comedy Aloha (2015). He also directed three musical documentaries, Pearl Jam Twenty (2011), The Union (2011), and David Crosby: Remember My Name (2019), and created the television series Roadies, which ran for one season in 2016 on Showtime. Early life Cameron Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California. His father, James A. Crowe, originally from Kentucky, was a real estate agent. His mother, Alice Marie (née George), "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and in family therapy and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe's grandfather was Greek. Crowe was the youngest of three children with two sisters; one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio, California. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in