PAUL FEIG is a three-time Emmy-nominated writer/director and a DGA Award-winning director. A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Feig was a winner of the school's Jack Oakie Memorial Award for Comedy in Film in 1984. After film school, Feig worked as a script reader for producer Michael Phillips (Taxi Driver) until he went on The $25,000 Pyramid and won $29,000 (“I always was an overachiever,” jokes Feig). The winnings allowed Feig to leave his job and pursue his long-time dream of being a professional stand-up comedian.
His stand-up career soon led to a successful career as a character actor in which he appeared as a series regular on the television series Dirty Dancing, Good Sports, The Jackie Thomas Show, The Louie Show and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. He also appeared in such films as Paul Maslansky's Ski Patrol, Disney's Heavy Weights and Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do!
It was only after being abruptly written out of the series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch that Feig began to sour on the actor's life. This drove him to write, produce and direct his first independent feature film, Life Sold Separately. It played on the festival circuit and was ultimately chosen by Movieline to tour college campuses across the United States.
While out on tour with his film, Feig wrote a spec pilot script for a television series about a high school set in the 1980s called Freaks and Geeks, which he then sold to DreamWorks Television through his longtime friend, producer Judd Apatow. NBC ended up making 18 episodes of the show and Feig served as the show's creator and coexecutive producer. Feig was nominated for two comedy-writing Emmy Awards—one for the pilot episode and one for the series finale, which he also directed. The series continues to be a top-selling DVD set and has begun re-airing on IFC.
After the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks, Feig went on to write and direct the film I Am David, which was based on the Danish book of the same name by Anne Holm. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees sponsored the film. The organization called it one of the most accurate depictions of a refugee child they had seen on film. The film stars James Caviezel and Joan Plowright and is the uplifting story about an 11-year-old boy in 1952, who escapes from a Bulgarian labor camp and makes his way across Europe in search of his family and identity. The film went on to win the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival, a Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival and Best Picture awards at the San Diego Film Festival and the Kansas City FilmFest.
Feig's third feature was the Warner Bros. family comedy Unaccompanied Minors, which was based on an episode of This American Life. The film stars Wilmer Valderrama, Lewis Black and Tyler James Williams. The film was nominated for a Taurus World Stunt Award and received the 2006 Parents Television Council Seal of Approval.
Feig has also directed multiple episodes of the television series Arrested Development, The Office, Nurse Jackie, Bored to Death and Weeds, as well as episodes of 30 Rock and Mad Men. He also served as a co-executive producer on both The Office and Nurse Jackie. In 2008, Feig's work on The Office earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the hour-long episode “Goodbye, Toby” and, in January of 2009, he won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series for the episode titled “Dinner Party.”
In addition to his film and television work, Feig is the author of two comedic memoirs released by Random House—“Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence” and “Superstud, Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin.” The latter book became New York Times and Los Angeles Times best sellers. He is also the author of two young-adult science-fiction novels—“Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!” and “Ignatius MacFarland 2: Frequency Freak-out!”—both published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers. He also has a short story, “My Parents Give My Bedroom to a Biker,” from the young adult humor collection “Guys Read: Funny Business” published by Walden Media and Harper Collins.
©2011 Universal Pictures
