Juliet and Keith Giglio will speak about the couple’s new novel.
One of the nicer families that lived in the Palisades, Keith and Juliet Giglio will be returning, albeit on Zoom, to speak about their new book “The Summer of Christmas.”
Los Angeles City Library is hosting the event on Tuesday, August 23 at 7 p.m. Please rsvp to palsds@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
The book, a romantic comedy, was released on July 5 with Sourcebooks Casablanca as its publisher.
The story is about an up-and-coming LA screenwriter, Ivy Green, whose movie is based on the relationship between her and her high school sweetheart, Nick Shepherd. Filmed in her hometown in Upstate New York, Ivy and her ex are surrounded by movie stars, and need to navigate the past to go forward.
Juliet Giglio received her bachelors in English from Dartmouth and her master’s degree at New York University, the Tisch School of the Arts. Keith received his bachelor’s in English literature from Wagner College.
The two met in an elevator while attending NYU graduate film school.
The couple moved to Pacific Palisades in 1990 shortly after receiving their degrees.
The two were successful in Hollywood, collaborating and selling numerous scripts, with many more optioned. Some credits include ABC Family’s ‘Pizza My Heart,’ Disney Channel’s ‘Return to Halloweentown’ and Disney’s ‘Tarzan.’ Keith was also executive producer of the movie ‘A Cinderella Story,’ starring Hilary Duff.
The couple taught screenwriting at UCLA Extension, but when they oldest child Sabrina graduated from Palisades High School 2011, the family moved to the East Coast.
The family was well-liked and Sabrina, a cello player, was on the swim team and was crowned Miss Palisades in 2010. Her sister Ava, attended at Paul Revere Middle School
On the East Coast, Juliet became an associate professor at Oswego State University of New York, and Keith an associate professor at Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications.
In addition to teaching, the couple has written four Lifetime holiday movies: “A Very Nutty Christmas” (2018), “Christmas Reservations” (2019), and “Dear Christmas” (2020) and “Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune” (2021).
As an academic, Giglio has tried to replicate the Hollywood system in the classroom and curriculum, preparing students with real life experience. Giglio created the Script to Screen program, sponsored by Final Draft and helped Syracuse University became an Institute Associative with the Sundance Film Festival. He has brought Sundance filmmakers and programmers to campus and taken students to Sundance.
In addition, to “The Summer of Christmas” that Giglio wrote with his wife, he has also penned three academic books, “Writing the Comedy Blockbuster,” “Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games” (with Robert Denton Bryant) and “Proof of Concept, Writing the Short Script.”