Paul Feig

As his tenure at U.S.C. wound to a close, Feig opted to fill his internship credit by working as a script reader for Michael Phillips. The internship eventually evolved into a full-time job, and Feig's co-workers were constantly impressed with the aspiring writer's tireless drive to succeed -- though Feig was secretly itching to get back into standup comedy. A chance win on the $25,000 Pyramid provided Feig with the money needed to hit the road with his standup act, and in order to keep himself occupied on the road, the struggling standup worked to hone his screenwriting skills. When the acting bug finally lured Feig back to the West Coast, the struggling comic became a struggling actor with roles in such features as Three O' Clock High and Ski Patrol, and on the small screen in It's Garry Shandling's Show and the short-lived Dirty Dancing. More substantial roles in Heavyweights and That Thing You Do! were quick to follow, and after scraping together 30,000 dollars to film his feature debut, Feig stepped behind the camera to direct his script for Life Sold Separately. A low-key comedy drama concerning four strangers attempting to escape their day-to-day lives, Life Sold Separately went largely unseen despite landing mostly favorable reviews.

In 1999, Feig served as writer and producer for the critically acclaimed, but ill-fated, television series Freaks and Geeks, a refreshing look at high-school life from the unique perspectives of the eponymous cliques. Two years later, Feig stepped behind the camera to direct episodes of the popular Freaks and Geeks follow-up series Undeclared, a unique and honest look at college life which suffered an eerily similar fate to its high-school counterpart. In 2003, Feig made an interesting departure from his generally humorous, Midwestern-flavored brand of comedy to direct I Am David, an adaptation of author Anne Holm's acclaimed novel -North to Freedom. A touching tale of a young boy who escapes a concentration camp in a desperate attempt to deliver an important letter to Denmark, I Am David revealed a side of the director that audiences had rarely seen. Feig turned to TV once again with directing gigs for the acclaimed series Arrested Development and The Office before returning to the big screen with Unaccompanied Minors, an adaptation of a This American Life story. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide