Fran Walsh

Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh (born 10 January 1959) is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.

The partner of filmmaker Peter Jackson, Walsh has contributed to all of their films since 1989: as co-writer since Meet the Feebles, and as producer since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She won three Academy Awards for the final film of the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Together, with her partner Peter Jackson, Walsh was named fifth richest on the 2025 NBR Rich List in New Zealand. Together their estimated net worth is $2.6 billion NZD.

Early life Walsh was born into a family of Irish descent

Walsh met Peter Jackson in the mid-1980s during the final stages of production on his low-budget movie Bad Taste, in which aliens serve humans as fast food. The couple then reteamed with writer Stephen Sinclair on the horror-comedy film that they had begun writing before Feebles, the zombie movie Braindead (retitled Dead Alive in the United States, 1992).

Walsh and Jackson have not married (2026). Wanting to try his hand at fantasy, Jackson turned to Miramax to make a film based on the works of writer J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1998, New Line Cinema provided the necessary financial backing to make a three-part adaptation of Tolkien's classic The Lord of the Rings.

Walsh, with Jackson and Philippa Boyens, is credited for writing the screenplays for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) (Stephen Sinclair has a writing credit on the second film: The Two Towers). They shared many awards, including an Oscar for their adapted screenplay for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. She also was one of the film's producers and co-composer of two songs for Return of the King, namely "Into the West" and "A Shadow Lies Between Us", the former song earning her one more Oscar that night.

Walsh, Jackson, and Boyens continued their screenplay work together for the 2005 remake of King Kong, which was given the green light by Universal after the Rings trilogy's success. The couple collaborated on the adaptation of the novel The Lovely Bones and on the three-film adaptation of The Hobbit.

Honours and awards She won three Academy Awards in 2004, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Song, all for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. She has received seven Oscar nominations.

In the 2002 New Year Honours, Walsh was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, also for services to film.

Filmography This is her selected filmography as screenwriter, unless noted:

Worzel Gummidge Down Under (1986–89) Meet the Feebles (1989) Braindead (1992, screenplay, casting director, acting cameo) Heavenly Creatures (1994) Jack Brown Genius (1996) The Frighteners (1996, screenplay, associate producer, acting cameo) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, screenplay, producer, lyricist for "In Dreams", additional second unit director) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, screenplay, producer, composer for "Gollum's Song") The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, screenplay, producer, composer for "Into the West" and "A Shadow Lies Between Us") King Kong (2005, screenplay, producer) The Lovely Bones (2009, screenplay, producer) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, screenplay, producer) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013, screenplay, producer) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014, screenplay, producer) Mortal Engines (2018, screenplay, producer) Beatles '64 (2024, special thanks) The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024, executive producer) The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (2027, screenplay, producer)