J.K. Rowling received the screenwriter credit for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them under the name J.K. Rowling.
The 2016 film was her screenwriting debut. It is set in the wizarding world but takes place in New York in 1926, decades before Harry Potter begins his first year at Hogwarts. Eddie Redmayne plays magizoologist Newt Scamander, whose magical creatures escape in the city.
Rowling adapted the project from the fictional Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which she had published in 2001 as a charity companion book. The film expanded that short classroom text into an original story with new characters and a wider historical setting.
David Yates directed the film, and Warner Bros. distributed it. The movie began a five-film series that was later branded Fantastic Beasts. Its screenplay was published in book form in 2016.