When Diablo Cody won the Oscar for Best Screenplay of 2007, much was said about the fact that before her spectacular writing success, she'd been a stripper.

Not knowing any better, I was impressed that such a thing could happen, that someone in a line of work that hasn't much to do with literary pursuits could suddenly produce an Oscar-winning screenplay.

Well, it wasn't like that at all. Diablo Cody (born Brook Busey in 1978) has a degree in media studies from the University of Iowa and was a writer before she was a stripper. Her stripping career lasted one year.

She broke into the Hollywood scene thanks to her blog, The Pussy Ranch. With a name like that, the blog attracted a lot of readers. One of them was the manager of a production company. When Cody told him she'd written a memoir, he asked to read it, liked it, and found a publisher for it. That was in 2005.

Liking her style, the producer next asked Cody to try her hand at a screenplay. The result was Juno, a story about a pregnant teenager with attitude.

Juno was Cody's first screenplay. According to an article in the August 2008 Writer's Digest, she has written another eight since then.

At the age of 30, Diablo Cody finds herself a successful Hollywood writer, rubbing shoulders with the big guys.

Her next film is a horror flick called Jennifer's Body. She's also working on a TV series called The United States of Tara. The main character is a woman with multiple personalities. The series will be produced by Stephen Spielberg. Toni Colette has been cast in the title role.

Juno (2007)
The story of a 16-year-old who becomes pregnant and makes all her own decisions as to how to deal with her situation.
Ellen Page...Juno MacGuff
Michael Cera...Paulie Bleeker
Jennifer Garner...Vanessa Loring
Jason Bateman...Mark Loring
Allison Janney...Bren MacGuff
J.K. Simmons...Mac MacGuff

Jennifer's Body (post-production, to be released in 2009)
When a possessed cheerleader starts killing and eating her male classmates, her best friend tries to put an end to the horror.
Megan Fox...Jennifer Check
Amanda Seyfried...Needy Lesnicky
Johnny Simmons...Chip Dove
Adam Brody...Nikolai
J.K. Simmons...Mr. Wroblewski
Amy Sedaris...Toni Lesnicky
Chris Pratt...Officer Roman Duda
Juno Ruddell...Officer Warzak

What inspired her unusual name? She was driving through Cody, Wyoming with her then husband, Jonny, listening over and over to a song called ''El Diablo.''