9 Comedy Filmmakers Who Deserve More Awards Recognition

9. Amy Heckerling

Amy Heckerling is probably the most unfamiliar name on this list, but she directed one comedy that is almost universally beloved: Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It was an impressive feature debut, and led to Heckerling directing Johnny Dangerously, European Vacation, and episodes of the short-lived Fast Times TV series. While she spent the late 1980s writing and directing the hokey (but popular) the first two Look Who's Talking movies, she later wrote and directed one of the most popular comedies of the 1990s, Clueless. She even wrote two episodes of the popular spinoff TV series. While Heckerling hasn't had the same career highs since, one would expect that the filmmaker behind two of the most popular high school comedies ever made would've received some recognition for her work, especially being a woman in the male-dominated world of comedy. Even the Writers Guild of America has barely recognized her work, only nominating her for Best Original Screenplay for Clueless (even though Clueless was actually a loose adaptation of the 1815 Jane Austen novel Emma).