About Iris
Iris Yamashita is the screenwriter for Letters from Iwo Jima.

The film, directed by Clint Eastwood was released in Japan on December 9th, 2006, reaching number 1 at the box office for 5 consecutive weeks. It had a limited release in the U.S. and was nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Sound Editing and won 1 Oscar for Sound Editing. It is a complementary film to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. The official Letters from Iwo Jima website can be viewed here.

Bio

Born in Missouri, raised in Hawaii and having lived in Guam, California, and Japan at different stages in her life, Iris Yamashita was able to experience a diversity of culture while growing up. She graduated with a B.S. Cum Laude in Bioengineering from UC San Diego and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley. She also spent a year in Japan, attended the University of Tokyo as a research student, studying "Virtual Reality."

However, Iris's true passion has always been writing fiction. Two of Iris's short stories have been published in All Nippon Airway's inflight magazine, "Wingspan," after twice winning first place in their international short fiction contest. One of her screenplays won first place honors in the Big Bear Lake Screenwriting Competition. There, she was approached by Cathy Tarr at CAA, who was a presiding judge for the competition and who now represents her.