Holly Goldberg Sloan
HOLLY GOLDBERG SLOAN… was born in Michigan and spent a peripatetic childhood with her psychology professor father and architect mother as her family moved to California, The Netherlands, Istanbul, Turkey, Washington D.C. and Oregon, where she finished twelve grade attending South Eugene High School.
After graduating from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Holly lived briefly in New York City and then moved west, making Los Angeles her home. She sold her first screenplay at the age of twenty-four to Paramount Pictures, and has since written eight successful family feature films, three for the Walt Disney Company including the baseball classic “Angels in the Outfield” and the soccer movie “The Big Green”, which she also helmed, making her the first woman to direct a live action movie for the studio.
In addition to her film and television work, fifteen years ago Sloan turned to publishing. She is today the New York Times bestselling author of six books for Penguin Random House, two with Little Brown, and one with Macmillan. Her novels have been published in 34 languages.
Her novel “Counting by 7s” has sold over a million copies in the United States and was an E.B. White Honor book. In 2022, Sloan received a Christopher Award for children’s literature for her book “The Elephant in the Room”. Her novel “Pieces of Blue” was an Oprah daily pick, and one of the Washington Post and New York Times ‘Best Books of Summer’ in 2023. “Finding Lost” from Rocky Pond (Penguin Random House), published in October of 2025, is her tenth novel.
Sloan’s other film work includes the Universal Pictures comedy “Made in America” starring Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Danson, Will Smith and Nia Long, which earned $100 million dollars worldwide in its theatrical release. For MGM, she wrote “Collision Course: The Crocodile Hunter Movie” starring the late Steve Irwin. For Warner Brothers, she wrote “Pure Country, Pure Heart” with Willie Nelson. She has penned movies produced for television by Hallmark Hall of Fame, Universal and ABC. For PBS, she wrote and directed “Heidi 4 Paws”, in which she put dogs in costumes to recreate the famous children’s story of Heidi. The film featured the voices of Angela Lansbury, Stephen Rea, Richard Kind, Majandra Delfino, and Julian Sands.
Holly is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The mother of two grown sons, she lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband, writer Gary Rosen, and their two rescue dogs Soni and Zorro.
