Since Diablo Cody took home an Oscar for Juno in 2007, she’s written a steady string of memorable films with characters who are fragile but tough, both funny and flawed — and relatable yet larger-than-life. Her screenplay for the upcoming Lisa Frankenstein should make it to the screen in Summer 2023, and buzz is already building around this 80s-era spin on the classic monster tale — with an unpopular high school girl in place of the mad doctor.

Over the years, Cody’s movie and TV scripts have shown her ability to shift gears seamlessly between dark humor and emotional devastation without missing a beat. From the slow-motion self-realization of Charlize Theron’s Young Adult to the tragic twist and reveal at the end of Tully, Cody has never shied away from brutal honesty as she explores and confronts subjects others would struggle to approach.

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By any measure, Cody’s career as a screenwriter has been a massive success. And yet, her bold body of work is often overlooked or undervalued when critics and fans debate the best screenwriters of the last few decades. But the fact is, Diablo Cody has clearly evolved into one of the most versatile and sharp screenwriters of her generation. And for proof, simply start where Cody did: with a smart, 16-year-old girl facing huge decisions with a sarcastic wit and a disarming confidence.

Juno (2007)

     Searchlight Pictures

Elliot Page gave the performance of his young career in Juno, bringing the role superb comedic timing and an understated cool. Cody’s screenplay follows Juno, a teenaged girl navigating an unplanned pregnancy and making decisions in real-time as her situation develops. Juno’s path leads her to an upscale adoptive couple who seem to have their lives figured out completely, while in truth they’re struggling to find their way the same as Juno. With a cast including Michael Cera, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman, and Jennifer Garner, everyone in Juno seems to be making their life up as they go along.

And it’s Cody’s script that gives each character a distinctive, memorable voice — especially the lead. As Cody explained to Entertainment Weekly, “I saw writing this screenplay as an opportunity to create an iconic female.” Funny, touching, sad and hopeful, Cody’s screenplay not only earned her the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but it also opened the door for a gory feminist satire about a demonically possessed teen who craves human flesh.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

     20th Century Studios

When it was first released, Jennifer’s Body was met with mixed reviews and audiences who didn’t quite know what to make of it. Was it a comedy? Horror? In reality, Cody’s inspiration for Jennifer’s Body was pretty simple. As she explained to Vox, “I love horror. I always wanted to do something like that — a horror movie with a female protagonist and a female villain. And that was what I wrote.” With its feminist twist on conventional horror tropes, Jennifer’s Body is really a story about women friendship and growing into one’s own identity and sense of self.

Early in the film, a deadly fire breaks out when best friends Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and Jennifer (Megan Fox) go see a band at a local bar. They both survive, but Jennifer ends up being ritually sacrificed by the bar band in exchange for fame. As a result, a demon possesses Jennifer’s body as a vessel to consume the living. While not exactly an episode of Saved by the Bell, Cody’s story follows Needy as she attempts to stop her best friend from killing every boy in their school. And though it’s certainly the goriest film Cody has written, it also may be the funniest — as her knowing, snarky and ironic dialogue fuels every scene with memorably funny lines. To be sure, the negative reviews and confused audiences that greeted Jennifer’s Body have faded away, and the movie has now achieved bona fide cult classic status.

Young Adult (2011)

     Mandate Pictures

Young Adult tells the story of Mavis, a troubled writer on an ill-fated journey to try and reconnect with a high-school flame and reassemble her crumbling life. With Charlize Theron starring, Cody’s story is about owning the consequences of one’s actions, and how misguided confidence can mask deeper insecurities — ultimately delaying one’s ability to mature into actual adulthood. While Mavis’ homecoming tour to break up her old boyfriend’s marriage goes from bad to worse, Cody’s script evolves the character from assured to awkward to cringey to emotionally broken before a series of confessions and epiphanies put Mavis in a position to own her life’s path and move on.

“I feel like I’m part of a generation of people who are stuck in the past and are really self-absorbed,” Cody told NPR when discussing Young Adult, “I mean, we’re actually taking pictures of ourselves and posting them on Facebook, and keeping in touch with people that should have been out of our lives 15 years ago. Obsessing over who’s getting married, who’s having kids, who’s more successful. It’s like we’re recreating high school every single day using social media. And it’s weird.”

United States of Tara (2009-2011)

     Dreamworks

Toni Collette earned a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Tara, a suburban homemaker suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, in United States of Tara. Over three seasons, the show’s writer and creator Cody was able to walk a tightrope between humor and sensitivity, presenting an ensemble comedy centered on a character with a serious mental illness. And though she claimed to have been shocked when the United States of Tara pilot was originally picked up by Showtime as a series, Cody relayed a sense of accomplishment to Vulture, saying “We made an innovative and interesting show.”

But Tara hasn’t been Cody’s only foray onto the small screen. She was co-creator of Tig Notaro’s acclaimed, semi-autobiographical comedy One Mississippi, and wrote multiple episodes of Rob Corddry’s bizarre, late-night cult hit Children’s Hospital.

Tully (2018)

In Tully, Theron delivers a powerful, complex performance as Marlo, a mother pushed beyond her limits. It tells the story of an overwhelmed mom of three who develops a close relationship with her night nanny Tully. The women’s bond deepens as Tully helps Marlo through her nights. But as the film reaches its climax and Marlo survives a car crash, it is revealed that Tully existed only in Marlo’s mind, and the mother is in fact suffering from severe exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

Creating Tully while she herself was a new mother, Cody wrote in the Los Angeles Times that “Writing this script saved me. Tully became my Tully, my helper, a glowing, soothing presence I could return to whenever I felt overwhelmed.” This was the third movie teaming Cody with director Jason Reitman, and she comments further in the Los Angeles Times piece how Reitman “pointed out, astutely, that Tully would be the logical final installment in our (unplanned) trilogy — Juno is about being prematurely thrust into adulthood, Young Adult is about resisting adulthood, and Tully is about finding grace and acceptance in midlife.”

From dark humor to emotional depth, few screenwriters have shown the range and bravery of Diablo Cody. Her complex character studies demonstrate Cody’s ability to handle sensitive issues with unblinking compassion and truth while also exposing the absurdity of their situations. When the subject of the best screenwriters of her generation comes up, Cody’s body of work speaks for itself, and her name should be among the last few standing after the debate.