Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941 in New York City, New York) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and novelist.
Her parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were both successful East Coast-born and raised screenwriters. Both died from alcoholism.
She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes writes with her sister, Delia Ephron.
She has been married three times, first to writer Dan Greenberg, second to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, and currently to writer Nicholas Pileggi. When Bernstein left her for Margaret Jay (who was wife of the British Ambassador in Washington, daughter of the British Prime Minister James Callaghan and later herself a British Labour politician), Ephron was inspired to write the 1983 novel Heartburn about the events, which was made into a 1986 film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Undeterred by the cutting nature and dramatic scenes portrayed in this widely-seen film, Margaret Jay played a part in the lives of other prominent men before settling down as a serious politician in Britain. Nora Ephron continues to write to widespread acclaim.