Brook Maurio (previously Busey-Hunt; née Busey; born June 14, 1978), known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.
She wrote, produced, and made her directorial debut with the comedy drama film Paradise (2013). Cody has also written and produced the films Jennifer's Body (2009), Young Adult (2011), Ricki and the Flash (2015), Tully (2018), and Lisa Frankenstein (2024).
Cody created, wrote, and produced the Showtime comedy drama series United States of Tara (2009–2011), and the Amazon Prime series One Mississippi (2015–2017). She made her Broadway debut with the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill winning the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Writer's Branch since 2008.
Diablo Cody was born Brook Busey on June 14, 1978, in Lemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where she and her older brother Marc were raised. She is the daughter of Pam and Greg Busey. Her mother is of Italian descent and her father is of German ancestry. Cody was raised Apostolic Christian and attended Saints Cyril & Methodius School and Benet Academy, Roman Catholic schools in the Chicago suburbs. At this time, she went by her birth name Brook.
In 2000, she graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in Media. While at the University of Iowa, she 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.
2001–2004: Blogging and stripping
Cody began a parody blog 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 she had moved from Chicago to Minneapolis.
In March 2003, Cody started an adult blog called The Pussy Ranch, using a pen name invented while speeding through Cody, Wyoming listening to the song "El Diablo" by Arcadia. On a whim, Cody signed up for amateur night at a Minneapolis strip club called the Skyway Lounge. Having enjoyed the experience, and seeing reader interest, she eventually quit her day job to become a full-time stripper. Cody also spent time working peep shows at Sex World, a Minneapolis adult novelty and DVD store.
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, and later wrote for the now-defunct Jane magazine. In December 2007, Cody began writing a column for the magazine Entertainment Weekly.
2005–2010: Breakthrough and acclaim
At the age of 27, Cody wrote her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. The memoir began after Mason Novick, who would become Cody's manager, showed interest in her sharp and sarcastic voice. Based on the popularity of her blog, Novick was able to secure her a publishing contract with New York publisher Gotham Books.
In March 2005, Cody appeared on “Late Show With David Letterman” to discuss her book at Letterman's request. The host had made it his only official Book Club selection.
After the completion of her book, Cody was encouraged by Novick to try writing a screenplay. Within months, she wrote Juno, a coming-of-age story about a teenager's unplanned pregnancy. The script was completed in February 2005, and was optioned by Mandate Pictures by that summer. The Jason Reitman-directed comedy stars Elliot Page and Michael Cera.
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 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 First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).
The Juno script was read by many in Hollywood before the film was released, bringing Cody more opportunities. 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 and Amanda Seyfried as the supporting character. She revised writer-director Steven Antin's script for his musical film Burlesque.
Cody made a small cameo appearance as herself in a 2008 episode of the television series 90210. 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. In 2009, Cody signed on to script and produce a film adaptation of the Sweet Valley High young adult book series.