J.K. Rowling is credited as the screenwriter of the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The film marked Rowling’s screenwriting debut and expanded the wizarding world beyond the Harry Potter novels. Its story is set in New York in 1926 and follows magizoologist Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, after magical creatures escape from his case.
The title resembles Rowling’s 2001 charity companion book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. That earlier book is presented as a Hogwarts textbook written by the fictional Newt Scamander, but the film is an original screenplay by Rowling rather than a direct adaptation of a full-length novel.
Steve Kloves, who adapted most of the Harry Potter novels for film, did not receive the screenplay credit for this first Fantastic Beasts film. The distinction between fictional author, screenwriter and performer is central to this question.