Nora Ephron

Born: May 19 1941
Where: New York, USA

The three-times Oscar-nominated writer and director struck romantic comedy gold with the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally.

Other box office date movie successes have included Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.

The daughter of stage and screenwriting team Henry and Phoebe Ephron, she attended Wellesely College in Massachussetts.

(her parents used her infancy as the subject of the play Three's a Family and based Take Her, She's Mine on letters their daughter wrote them from college).

She originally followed a career in journalism, working for the New York Post as well as Esquire and New York Magazine.

Switching to screenwriting, Ephron landed an Oscar nomination for her first effort - the anti-nuclear drama Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep.

In 1989, the global smash When Harry Met Sally - featuring the celebrated diner orgasm scene with Meg Ryan - was written by Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner.

She went on to write Cookie (with Alice Arlen), My Blue Heaven and 1992's This My Life, which also marked her directorial debut and starred Julie Kavner.

In 1993, she scored another box office smash ($250m gross worldwide) with Tom Hanks and Ryan in the Oscar-nominated Sleepless in Seattle.

Subsequent outings included Mixed Nuts (co-written with sister Delia) and Michael before Hanks and Ryan were reteamed for the audience favourite You've Got Mail.

In 2000, she directed the disappointing John Travolta/Lisa Kudrow crime comedy Lucky Numbers.

Recent work includes the big screen adaptation of the 1960s sitcom Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell.