From Florida to Hollywood, and Back
A conversation with Sharon Y. Cobb
Introduction by Elizabeth Poland Shugg
When we decided to expand Backroad Portfolio’s coverage to include Florida, I immediately thought of my first boss, Sharon Y. Cobb. Two weeks before graduating from Virginia Tech in May 1995, I applied to work for a new magazine being published in the Orlando, Florida, area titled Coastal Home—later renamed Coastal Living. Jack Thomasson, the mastermind behind HGTV Dream Home from 1997 to 2016, created this glamorous shelter magazine in 1995 and hired Sharon, a Florida native, to be its editor. At that time she lived in Beverly Hills, where she also worked as a screenplay writer. She chose me to be her assistant. Fresh out of college, I could not have asked for a more exciting job.
So, here’s my conversation with Sharon, who returned to Florida in 1999. She talks about her interactions with literary icon Tennessee Williams, who helped inspire her to launch her screenwriting career, and shares favorite Sunshine State destinations. We’ve also included one of her favorite recipes, which happens to line up nicely with our afternoon tea travel feature.
How long have you lived in Florida, and what Florida towns and cities have you lived in?
I was born in DeLand, Florida, and have lived in Jacksonville, MacClenny, Key West, Neptune Beach, and Atlantic Beach. I also lived in Beverly Hills for eight years from 1993 to 2001.
How did you become interested in cooking, and what led to you writing a cooking column for Jacksonville Today?
Growing up in my grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s kitchens, eating down-home Southern cooking, created a curiosity in me about what other people around the world ate, so I subscribed to Bon Appétit magazine in my early 20s. Using those recipes, I experimented on friends, cooking global cuisines in my little apartment. Friends who were opening a restaurant in the Five Points area of Jacksonville thought our city was ready for a more adventurous dining experience and asked me to come in as a partner and chef.
The name of the restaurant was Lady Fingers, and we served eclectic cuisine. I stayed there until I left to open an advertising agency and a few other businesses in Jacksonville. The cooking column for Jacksonville Today came much later after I had lived in Key West as an artist and returned to Jacksonville to establish a publication with partners called Florida Travel Directory, a directory of Florida accommodations and attractions for travel agents. I eventually sold my interest in the directory and was hired by Jim White who owned Jacksonville Today to become their editor. He gave me the freedom to do almost anything creative that I thought readers would like, and a cooking column was at the top of my list.
What launched your Hollywood screenwriting career?
When I lived in Key West from 1981 to 1987, one of my neighbors inspired me to begin writing short stories. I loved his work and he used to walk by the gallery on Duval Street where my art studio was located and tip his straw hat with his cane. One afternoon, on a wild whim, I dashed across the street and asked his advice about how to start writing fiction. He was flabbergasted and answered, “Well, you just write.” There were a few words of profanity included, but that was okay because this was Tennessee Williams giving his advice to a clueless young artist who dreamed of being a writer. I took a few classes at the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center and started writing.
Years later when I moved back to Jacksonville, I found myself in a screenwriting workshop and that’s when I started writing films. That was 1989. By 1993, I had moved to Los Angeles to pursue a screenwriting career. I was very lucky to find an agent within three months who sent a comedy script I wrote out to studios and production companies. That kickstarted my brilliant career. At that time there was no internet, so you had to be in Hollywood. I was very lucky to get writing assignments and even sell a pitch to Fox Studios, with a writing partner, Carolyn McDonald, who ran Danny Glover’s production company.
After marrying the love of my life, Robert J. Ward, who was a film journalist from New Zealand I met in LA, we moved back to Jacksonville to be close to my family. I continued to write screenplays and even got a film made in London in 2001 shortly after coming back to Florida. The most recent script I co-wrote that was made into a film is titled The Man in the White Van. I wrote it with the director, Warren Skeels, and it was distributed theatrically in December 2024. It premiered in the No. 1 spot on Starz when it began its streaming distribution in February 2026.
