Theta Eta (American) Alumnus wins Oscar for Co-Writing BlacKkKlansman

Theta Eta Chapter alumnus Charlie Wachtel has received an Oscar for co-writing the recent Spike Lee and Jordan Peele movie BlacKkKlansman.

The screenplay, adapted from a book by the same name, follows the true story of Ron Stallworth, a rookie African-American police officer who went undercover and infiltrated a Colorado branch of the Ku Klux Klan in 1979.

NJ.com wrote: 

After meeting at Hebrew school, Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz grew up together in East Brunswick. Now, they’re celebrating their first Oscar win.

Wachtel and Rabinowitz, 31, two of the pens behind the Oscar-nominated film “BlacKkKlansman,” received the honor for best adapted screenplay alongside co-writers Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (“Chi-Raq”).

As a police detective in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Stallworth, who is black, successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. In the film, he does this with the help of Det. Flip Zimmerman, played by Adam Driver. Zimmerman, who is Jewish (in real life, Stallworth’s white partner was not), must play the part of a Holocaust denier and keep up the ruse as he comes face to face with Klan members who ask if he’s Jewish.

Charlie Wachtel poses with Spike Lee and David Rabinowitz on the Oscar stage.
Backstage at the Academy Awards, writers David Rabinowitz (from left), Charlie Wachtel and Kevin Willmott show off their Oscars for “BlacKkKlansman.”
Jordan Strauss Invision/AP

Watch the trailer here. 

BlacKkKlansman is available to purchase now.