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Karen Leigh Hopkins (also Karen Lee Hopkins) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actress born in Sandusky, Ohio. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting but pivoted to writing after her scenes were cut from The Breakfast Club (1985) and Three Amigos. Her first screenplay, The Kindness of Strangers, was written in 12 days and sold to Paramount, launching her career behind the camera.
As an actress, Hopkins is best known for playing Brenda in The Running Man (1987), with additional credits in Corrina, Corrina (1994) and Mafia! (1998).
Her most notable writing and producing credits include Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990), Stepmom (1998, co-writer, starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, $160M worldwide), Because I Said So (2007, writer and associate producer, starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore), Miss Meadows (2014, writer, director, and executive producer, Tribeca premiere), Little Voice (2020, Apple TV+), and Love Is Love Is Love (2020). She won the Humanitas Prize for Searching for David's Heart (2004) and received an Emmy nomination for What Girls Learn.