Oscars 2022: How Sian Heder Had a Major Breakthrough With Her Win for ‘CODA’s Adapted Screenplay

Earning a nomination at the Academy Awards is hard enough; winning is even more of a challenge. Unless you’re Meryl Streep, that is. Or Sian Heder.

Heder won the award for best adapted screenplay at the 2022 Oscars for CODA, a critical success that received mixed reviews from the deaf community. She directed and produced CODA, too, but here’s why winning for adapted screenplay was a nearly unprecedented breakthrough for Heder.

Heder’s breakthrough came in only her second screenplay

CODA tells the story of a hearing daughter of deaf parents wrestling with a life-changing decision: Whether or not to pursue a singing career, which would mean leaving her family behind. Heder’s nomination for adapting CODA for the screen was her first nomination at the Academy Awards and her first win.

What might be just as remarkable is that CODA is just the second screenplay of Heder’s to make it to the big screen. She has more acting (11) and directing (nine, including CODA) credits on her resume than she does writing credits (seven).

Heder’s first movie screenplay to make it to the big screen didn’t really get to the big screen at all: Tallulah debuted on Netflix in 2016. It is based on Heder’s 2006 short Mother.

Heder’s movie resume is a little on the thin side, to put it bluntly, but it doesn’t matter. She has an Oscar in tow, and the major breakthrough puts her in rare company. Only a handful of screenwriters have won an Academy Award on their first nomination, including Diablo Cody (Juno), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), and Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendents) (h/t Yardbarker). Interestingly, CODA star Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God the first time she was nominated.

The 2022 Oscars were a banner evening for Heder and CODA. In addition to her win for best adapted screenplay, the film won for best picture (just like at the PGAs), and Troy Kotsur won for best supporting actor — in his first time nominated, just like Heder.

What else is Heder known for writing?

Before shepherding CODA to the screen, Heder’s most notable credits came with Tallulah and a pair of TV shows.

She wrote two episodes of Men of a Certain Age, a comedy/drama starring Scott Bakula, Andre Braugher, and Ray Romano.

Heder was heavily involved in the popular Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She served as co-producer for 13 episodes in 2015, and she wrote six episodes between 2013-2015. Heder earned story editor credits for 13 OITNB episodes, too. She garnered three nominations in 2014 and 2015 via the Writers Guild of America or Orange Is the New Black.

Is Sian Heder deaf?

Heder, who is not deaf, didn’t take the responsibility of accurately portraying the deaf community lightly.

As a self-described outsider to an underrepresented community, Heder knew she had to look beyond herself to get it right, she told the Los Angeles Times.

“[I]f I was gonna do it, I had to do it right, and in order to do that, I had to surround myself with people who knew better than I did about deaf culture and being in that world.” 

“As a filmmaker, I saw myself as the conduit and put a team around me from the script stage through production through the deaf collaborators I had on set with my ASL directors, Anne Tomasetti and Alexandria Wailes, the cast, and the consultants that worked with me on writing the film.”

Heder revealed she did a lot of research before penning her script for CODA. With an Academy Award on her shelf now, it clearly paid off.

All career vitals courtesy of IMDb.