Charles Stuart Kaufman (/ˈkɔːfmən/; born November 19, 1958) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York (2008), which film critic Roger Ebert called "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. Further directorial work include the stop motion animated film Anomalisa (2015) and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020).