John August, moderator

John August's feature directing debut, The Nines, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As a screenwriter, John's credits include Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, and both Charlie's Angels movies. He wrote and co-produced Go, which debuted at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.  For television, he created the short-lived series "D.C." for The WB, along with pilots for Fox and ABC.

His upcoming projects include Dark Shadows, Preacher and the animated Frankenweenie.  John is a frequent advisor to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He also runs a website aimed at budding screenwriters, johnaugust.com.

Neil LaBute, moderator

Neil LaBute (Playwright) received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre, London and also attended the Sundance Institute's Playwrights Lab.

His films include: In the Company of Men (New York Critics' Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things, a film adaptation of his play by the same title, The Wicker Man, Lakeview Terrace, and Death at a Funeral.

LaBute's plays include: bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Autobahn, a collection of one- act plays, Fat Pig, Some Girls, This Is How It Goes, In a Dark Dark House and Reasons To Be Pretty (Tony Award Nominated for Best Play). LaBute is also the author of several fictional pieces that have been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and Playboy, among others.  Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of his short stories, was published by Grove Atlantic. 

Michael Cieply, moderator

Michael Cieply became a media correspondent for The New York Times in 2007, where he covers Hollywood.  Mr. Cieply joined The Times as a movie editor in 2004.

Before joining The Times, Mr. Cieply was an editor and reporter covering entertainment and media for the business section of the Los Angeles Times from 2002 to 2004, and spent one year as a freelance writer for various publications including Details, Esquire, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Talk Magazine. From 2000 to 2001, Mr. Cieply was the West Coast editorial director for Inside, which operated a Web-based news service and a biweekly magazine covering entertainment, media and technology.

From 1991 to 2000, Mr. Cieply was a film and television producer and production executive, working with various companies, including ABC, Columbia, Disney, Fox, Universal and United Airlines. From 1982 to 1991, he was a reporter covering entertainment and business for various publications including Forbes Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Cieply is the co-author with Lindsay Chaney of “The Hearsts: Family and Empire,” (Simon & Schuster, 1981).

Born in Kittanning, Penn., on February 4, 1951, Mr. Cieply received a B.A. degree in modern European history from the University of Michigan in 1973 and a M.A. degree in modern European intellectual history from Stanford University in 1976.

Jay Chandrasekhar 

Named as one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch in 2001, Jay Chandrasekhar is an accomplished filmmaker, comedy writer and performer, and also serves as the director of the Broken Lizard comedy group. 

Chandrasekhar recently directed the cult comedy Beerfest about a secret underground beer drinking competition that starred Broken Lizard. Prior to directing Beerfest, Jay directed The Dukes of Hazard. Starring Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Burt Reynolds and Jessica Simpson, Chandrasekhar's take on the classic television hit is an action packed adrenaline rush of car chases and comedy.

Chandrasekhar has also directed, co-wrote, and starred in three Broken Lizard feature films: Club Dread, Super Troopers (the first major acquisition of the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, distributed by Fox Searchlight and now one of Fox's most popular DVD titles), and the micro-budgeted Puddle Cruiser (official Sundance film festival selection) which introduced the world to the comic voice of Broken Lizard.

Cherien Dabis

Named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” in 2009, award-winning independent filmmaker Cherien Dabis made her feature writing and directorial debut with Amreeka, which premiered to both audience and critical acclaim at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, opened New York’s New Director’s/New Films series and won the prestigious FIPRESCI award at Cannes. The film was nominated for a 2009 Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the year by the National Board of Review. Dabis is also the winner of the 2009 Humanitas Prize as well as the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award. Her original script was selected to participate in the 2005 Sundance Middle East Screenwriter’s Lab, Film Independent’s Director’s Lab, Los Angeles Film Festival’s Fast Track program and 2007 Berlinale Co-Production Market. At Tribeca All Access in 2007, Dabis was honored with the first ever L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Vision Award, and in 2007, she won the Dubai Co-Production Market’s top award. Heralded as a “heartfelt triumph” by the Hollywood Reporter, Amreeka stars international newcomer Nisreen Faour (named one of New York Magazine’s “Six to Watch”), Hiam Abbass (The Visitor, Paradise Now), Yussef Abu Warda and Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development).

Also an accomplished television Writer and Co-Producer, Dabis worked on Showtime Network’s ground breaking, original hit series The L Word for three seasons. A graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Fine Arts film program, she has written, directed and produced several short films, which have screened at some of the world’s top film festivals. Make A Wish (2006) premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival as well as Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival where it won the Prix de la Presse and Mention Spéciale du Jury. The film went on to win top awards in Dubai, Rotterdam, Cairo, Chicago and Aspen. Dabis received several generous grants in support of the film, including the National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project Seed Grant, the Jerome Foundation’s New York City Media Arts Grant as well as the New York State Council on the Art’s Electronic Media and Film Distribution Grant. She is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship in Playwriting/Screenwriting from New York Foundation for the Arts, and more recently, Renew Media/Tribeca Film Institute’s prestigious Media Artist Fellowship, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

As a graduate film student, Dabis was granted several distinguished awards, including the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting, the Institute for Humane Studies Film and Fiction Scholarship and the New York Women in Film and Television Scholarship.

The first of her family born in the U.S., Dabis was raised in Ohio and Jordan and currently resides in New York City. 

Kim Dickens

Born in Huntsville, AL to an antiques dealer mother and musician father, Kim Dickens was destined for a career in the arts. Her journey into acting began as a student at Nashville, TN's Vanderbilt University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts and Science Degree. Upon graduation, Dickens headed to New York City in order to study at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, then to graduate from The America Academy of Dramatic Arts.

While in New York, Dickens began landing supporting roles in theatre and independent films; her debut being 1995's indie-comedy hit Palookaville, directed by Alan Taylor. From there, Dickens appeared as the female lead in Keifer Sutherland's feature directorial debut, Truth or Consequences, N.M. She starred opposite Bruce Willis in the Harold Becker-directed thriller Mercury Rising; then showed up along side Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman as the mysterious and elusive suspect, Gloria, in the Jake Kasdan-helmed cult-hit comedy, Zero Effect. In 2000, she co-starred alongside Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue as an ethical scientist who goes head-to-head with a villainous invisible man in the Paul Verhoeven summer blockbuster, Hollow Man. Further acclaim came to Dickens in the summer of 2001 when she played an up-and-coming rock singer spiraling out of control, before coming to terms with her traumatic past in director Allison Anders' semi-autobiographical film, Things Behind the Sun. This performance garnered Dickens an Independent Spirit Award® nomination for best female lead. 2003 found Dickens busy on both the big screen and small, starting with a prime role in Showtime's mini series Out of Order, opposite Eric Stoltz, Felicity Huffman, and William H. Macy. Next, was a small yet well received role in the Academy Award® nominated The House of Sand and Fog.

Dickens continues to wow audiences with her range, portraying characters like Joanie Stubbs, the Madame of the Bella Union in HBO's highly acclaimed Deadwood. Other credits include Arne Glimcher's The White River Kid with Antonio Banderas, Sam Raimi's The Gift, with Cate Blanchett, and Jason Reitman's hit comedy, Thank You for Smoking, starring Aaron Eckhart and Maria Bello.

Dickens’s most recent work includes the film The Blind Side premiering this fall as well as guest appearances on hit series Lost, Friday Night Lights, and Flash Forward.  Kim also appeared in the dramatic thriller Red starring Brian Cox and Tom Sizemore, which screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Currently Kim has begun work on HBO's new David Simon drama, Treme.

Dickens lives in both Los Angeles and New York City. 

Ruben Fleischer

As a child growing up in Washinton, DC, Ruben Fleischer never dreamed of being a director.  But after working as the assistant to Miguel Arteta on  Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl, Ruben had incredible first hand access to see what directing was all about.  After those experiences, Ruben quit working and spent the next two years making various low budget music videos, short films, and other experiments, thereby putting himself embarrassingly deep into credit card debt in his attempt to be a “director.”  Luckily, people started to watch and enjoy his videos, which led to him getting signed to a production company where he was able to direct commercials and bigger budget music videos.  Through making Six Days In May, a documentary about the Gumball Rally (a modern day Cannonball Run), Ruben met Rob & Big Black, with whom he created and developed Rob & Big, a hit reality television show on MTV.  After three successful seasons, the show ended, only to be followed up by Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, a show about Rob’s business ventures.  On the feature side, Ruben directed his first feature, Zombieland, a Zom-Com about the post-apocalyptic zombie world starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin.  

 Jeffrey Friedman

Jeffrey Friedman began his filmmaking career in New York as a child actor off-Broadway. He has been working in film since 1971, apprenticing in the editing rooms such memorable films as The Exorcist  and Raging Bull. Since 1987, he has been making films with Rob Epstein through their San Francisco production company Telling Pictures.

Their most recent film is HOWL, a non-traditional narrative feature about Allen Ginsberg's groundbreaking poem and the obscenity trial that followed its publication. Starring James Franco, Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Wiliams, Bob Balaban, and Alessandro Nivola, HOWL had its North American premiere on opening night of Sundance 2010, followed by a European premiere in competition at the Berlinale.

Dana E. Glauberman

Dana E. Glauberman, A.C.E. (editor) first collaborated with Jason Reitman on Thank You for Smoking, which earned her an A.C.E. Eddie Award nomination for Best Edited Feature Film - Comedy or Musical.  She was reunited with Reitman on the critically acclaimed and award‐winning Juno, for which she was again nominated for an Eddie Award, and Golden Globe winner Up in the Air. Glauberman recently edited two films for Brandon Camp: the feature film Love Happens starring Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston, and his short film Prodigy.  She also edited Ben Affleck's Gimme Shelter, a short film made for the

UNHCR in their effort to protect and support refugees around the globe. Glauberman began her career shortly after graduating college in 1990 when she worked in post‐production at a leading television production and distribution company.  Over the years, she has received invaluable training working with such distinguished editors as Arthur Schmidt, Sheldon Kahn, A.C.E. and Wendy Greene‐Bricmont, A.C.E.

Additional film credits include Factory Girl and Mean Girls, as well as additional editing on The Chumscrubber and I'll Be There.  As an assistant editor, she worked on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Road Trip, Six Days/ Seven Nights and The Birdcage, among many others.

James Gray

James Gray (Writer/Director) made his directorial debut in 1994 at the age of 25 with Little Odessa, a critically acclaimed crime drama about a hitman confronted by his younger brother upon returning to his hometown of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Starring Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Maximilian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave, the film received the Critics Award at the Deauville Film Festival as well as the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. That same year, he received nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

In 2000, Gray wrote and directed his second film for Miramax, The Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, James Caan and Joaquin Phoenix. The film was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

We Own the Night paired writer/director Gray with Walhberg and Phoenix for the second time.  The film is an emotional crime drama about a man who has chosen to hide his past only to discover that he has to confront an inevitable future.  Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall also star. We Own the Night was selected for official competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.  

Gray’s most recent film, the Cesar-award nominated Two Lovers, teamed him with Joaquin Phoenix for the third time. Gwyneth Paltrow and Isabella Rossellini also star in this Brooklyn-set romantic drama.   Two Lovers  premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

Born in New York City, he grew up in Queens and attended the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. 

John Lee Hancock

John Lee Hancock most recently wrote and directed the Academy Award® Best Picture nominee The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock. He previously directed The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid, which won the 2002 ESPY Award for Best Sports Movie.  He also directed and co-wrote the historical drama The Alamo, starring Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton.

Hancock most recently co-wrote the screenplay for the musical drama The Goree Girls (to star Jennifer Aniston), which is slated for production in 2010.  His upcoming films also include the drama Dead I Well May Be, which he wrote and is set to direct, and the fact-based Hurricane Katrina drama The American Can, which he is co-writing and will direct.

Originally from Texas City, Texas, Hancock earned a law degree from Baylor University.  Upon moving to Los Angeles, he traded his legal career for the chance to start the theatre company Legal Aliens, with actor Brandon Lee.  He wrote and directed several original stage plays there before launching his film and television career.

Hancock’s first major motion picture screenplay, A Perfect World, was directed by Clint Eastwood, who also produced and starred alongside Kevin Costner and Laura Dern.  Hancock then wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the screen adaptation of the acclaimed book, also directed by Eastwood.  He made his producing debut with the family drama My Dog Skip, starring Kevin Bacon, Diane Lane, and Frankie Muniz, under the direction of Jay Russell.

For television, Hancock created the CBS series L.A. Doctors, on which he was an executive producer, director and writer.  Later, he served as executive producer of the network’s drama series Falcone, also directing episodes.

Hancock is currently an advisor at the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Lab.

Lora Hirschberg

Lora Hirschberg was born outside Cleveland, Ohio and attended New York University’s film school, where she also studied music and art history. After graduating in 1985, Hirschberg held a variety of production and post production jobs in Manhattan before moving to San Francisco in 1989. Starting in the machine room at American Zoetrope, Lora worked her way up the ranks to re-recording mixer. Her first project was Agnieska Holland's The Secret Garden in 1993 and has since mixed over 60 feature, documentary, and IMAX films including The Celluloid Closet and Paragraph 175 (both co-directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman); Let’s Get Real; The Journey Inside (IMAX); Nine Months; Strange Days; Great White Hype; One Fine Day; Sleepers; Hercules; Titanic; Sphere; Halloween H2O; 54; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Anywhere But Here; All the Pretty Horses; O; Bandits; The Grey Zone; Panic Room; Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones; The Ring; Adaptation; Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Straight-Jacket; Stay; Batman Begins; Rent; Borat; Shortbus; Stranger Than Fiction; The Prestige; Into the Wild; The Kite Runner; Iron Man; The Dark Night (for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Mixing); Please Give; and most recently 2010 Sundance Film Festival Opener, HOWL.   

Michael Hoffman

Michael Hoffman has established himself as a selective filmmaker-capable of creating complex and layered stores, brought to life with remarkable performances. His work is distinct in its exemplary attention to detail and character.

Hoffman recently wrote and directed the romantic drama The Last Station, a story about love and marriage set against Leo Tolstoy’s final year.  The film stars Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti.  It premiered to rave reviews and enthusiastic audience response at the 2009 Telluride Film Festival. Hoffman’s screenplay was awarded the prize for Best International Literary Adaptation by the Frankfurt Book Fair, and Mirren won the Best Actress prize at the Rome Film Festival for her portrayal of Countess Sofya Tolstoy.  Sony Pictures Classics will distribute the film in December 2009.

Hoffman began his illustrious career with the Sundance Institute when he was invited to workshop his script Promised Land at the 1983 Filmmaker’s Lab.  The film was eventually produced by Robert Redford’s Wildwood Productions and was released in 1987 starring Meg Ryan and Kiefer Sutherland. Hoffman made a second film for Wildwood, festival favorite Some Girls (a.k.a. Sisters) with Patrick Dempsey and Jennifer Connolly in 1988.  In 1991, he made the move to the studio world with Paramount’s hit comedy Soapdish starring Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey, Teri Hatcher, and Elizabeth Shue.

He reteamed with Robert Downey to make the period romance Restoration which also starred Meg Ryan, Polly Walker, Hugh Grant, Ian McKellan and David Thewlis.  The film, produced by Miramax, won two Oscars in 1996.  Hoffman’s next film was Fox’s romantic comedy One Fine Day with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, followed in 1998 by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Pfeiffer again along with Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Sam Rockwell and Rupert Everett for which he also wrote the screenplay. In 2001, he worked again with Kevin Kline and newcomer Emile Hirsch on the classroom drama The Emperor’s Club which was a critical favorite of the year.

In 2005, Hoffman directed Michael Keaton, Robert Downey and Griffin Dunne in award winning novelist Don Delillo’s Game Six for his own company, Serenade Films; the film premiered at the Sundance Film festival in 2005.  He also made a documentary for ESPN, Out of the Blue, a film about life and football and wrote an HBO pilot about the American intelligence community in the Middle East with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh.

Born in Honolulu Hawaii in 1955, Hoffman spent his early life in rural Idaho and earned his first degree, a Bachelor’s in Theater Arts, from Boise State University where he was a founding member of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.  While there, he won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University.  He read English Literature at Oriel College, where he made his first feature film, Privileged, a student drama starring Hugh Grant, Imogen Stubbs and James Wilby.

Hoffman currently lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife, writer Samantha Silva, and his three children, and is an ardent supporter of Manchester United Football Club.

Rolfe Kent

Rolfe Kent has created the music for more than 40 feature films.  He earned Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations for his score for Alexander Payne’s acclaimed comedy drama Sideways and also collaborated with Payne on the films About Schmidt, Election and Citizen Ruth. 

Kent’s recent score for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was his fifth collaboration with director Mark Waters.  Kent also wrote the music for the Waters‐directed films Just Like Heaven, Mean Girls, Freaky Friday and The House of Yes.  In addition, Kent has repeatedly worked with director Richard Shepard, scoring the films The Hunting Party, The Matador, Mexico City and Oxygen.  

Ronna Kress

Ronna Kress began her career in film as casting assistant on Mermaids (1990) and Falling Down (1993).  She went on to work as casting associate on such films as Sabrina, Up Close and Personal, Romeo + Juliet, My Best Friend’s Wedding, City of Angels, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Her first foray as casting director was in 1997 with Lawn Dogs.  She has cast such box-office hits as Remember the Titans, Moulin Rouge!, The Fast and the Furious, The Rookie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Cold Mountain, The Alamo, Monster-in-Law, Glory Road, No Reservations, Beowulf, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Australia, G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and most recently, Academy Award® nominee, The Blind Side.

Jason Patric

Jason Patric’s feature film debut came in 1987 when he appeared in the comedy-thriller The Lost Boys.  He then starred in the war drama The Beast.   After Dark My Sweet and Rush, which earned Patric critical acclaim, Patric next starred in Geronimo: An American Legend, The Journey of August King, Sleepers and Your Friends and Neighbors, which was the first feature Patric produced for his production company, Fleece.  Patric starred in the drama Narc and The Alamo for Director John Lee Hancock.  He starred in Downloading Nancy, Expired, My Sister’s Keeper  and will be seen starring The Loosers opening April 9th. Patric starred as Brick in the Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Some of his other theatre credits include Neil LaBute’s Bash, Beirut, Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap, The Tempest, Henry V and Love’s Labor Lost. 

Don Roos

Don Roos is the screenwriter of Love Field, Single White Female, Boys on the Side, and the 1996 remake of Diabolique.

In 1998 he made his directorial debut with The Opposite of Sex, and won two Independent Spirit Awards for best first feature and best screenplay.

In 2000 he directed Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow in his script Bounce, and created the NBC series M.Y.O.B.

He then directed his script Happy Endings, which starred Lisa Kudrow and Maggie Gyllenhaal and opened the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2008, Don directed the script he adapted from Ayelet Waldman's novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, starring Natalie Portman and due to be released in late 2010.

He has just finished directing the third season of the web series Web Therapy, starring Lisa Kudrow, Molly Shannon, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Don is currently casting Swedish Berries, which he wrote and is slated to direct later this year.

He lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, the actor/writer Dan Bucatinsky, and their children Eliza & Jonah.

Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is an Oscar®‐nominated director who has established himself as an original, smart and funny storyteller known for his pitch‐perfect commentaries on society. His third film as director, Up in The Air, has just been released by Paramount Pictures, to much acclaim, appearing on many year-end top-10 lists, and garnering the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.

Reitman recently produced the horror comedy Jenniferʹs Body for Fox.  The Diablo Cody‐scripted film was directed by Karyn Kusama and stars Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox.  In addition, Reitman executive‐produced Atom Egoyan's Chloe starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore, which debuted at this year's Toronto Film Festival and has been picked up for release by Sony and is set for release in 2010. Reitman is also set to executive produce Max Winkler's directing debut Ceremony and is currently at work on an adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel Labor Day. 

Eric Steelberg

Eric Steelberg (director of photography) is lighting his tenth film for Jason Reitman, a relationship that began on the short feature Operation and has continued through the award‐winning  Juno, for which Reitman received an Academy Award® nomination.  The film was also nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and won a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack.  Steelberg and Reitman's latest collaboration was on the critically acclaimed Up in the Air, starring George Clooney.    

More recently, Steelberg collaborated with Marc Webb on the offbeat romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon‐Levitt and Bandslam starring David Bowie and Lisa Kudrow, directed by Todd Graff.  

Mark Waters

Mark Waters, a graduate of the directing program at the American Film Institute, made his feature film directorial debut with the dark comedy indie hit The House of Yes.  The film premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, where Parker Posey won a Special Jury Prize for her performance.

Waters's next projects were the romantic comedy Head Over Heels and the VH1 original movie Warning: Parental Advisory.

He then scored with the back-to-back hit comedies Freaky Friday and Mean Girls.  Freaky Friday, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, earned a 2004 Critic's Choice Award nomination for Best Family Film and brought a Golden Globe Award nomination to Jamie Lee Curtis.  Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey and based on the Rosalind Wiseman book Queen Bees and Wannabees, became one of the most talked-about films of the year and won three MTV Movie Awards, including one for Lindsay Lohan as Best Actress.  

Waters followed in 2005 with the fantasy comedy romance Just Like Heaven, starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo.  And in 2008 he directed the acclaimed family adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles, adapted from the popular book series.

Waters's latest film, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas, was released in May 2009, and he recently served as a producer on (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.  The offbeat romantic comedy was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards and two Golden Globes.

Mike White

In 2009, Mike White appeared as a contestant on "The Amazing Race" with his clergyman father, Mel.  They made it through seven legs of the grueling race until their elimination in Phuket, Thailand due to an errant cab driver. Mike was also featured with his dogs, Ginger and Tootsie, in a light-hearted episode of Cesar Milan's "The Dog Whisperer".  Interestingly, Mike's dentist has appeared on "Extreme Makeover" and his doctor on "The Biggest Loser."  Mike's diverse credits as a writer/director/actor include Chuck and Buck,
The Good Girl, Year of the Dog, Orange County, Nacho Libre, School of Rock, "Pasadena" and "Freaks and Geeks".  He is currently working on a pilot for HBO, entitled "Enlightened" with Laura Dern and Luke Wilson.  

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