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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

BOB ODENKIRK (Director) recently directed the comedy Let’s Go to Prison starring Will Arnett, and previously wrote, directed and starred in the short film The Pity Card and the festival award-winning independent feature Melvin Goes to Dinner. He has starred in films including Relative Strangers, Danny Roane: First Time Director, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, Run Ronnie Run, Dr. Dolittle 2, Monkeybone, The Independent, Can’t Stop Dancing, The Big Twist, Waiting for Guffman, The Cable Guy, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Clean Slate and Wayne’s World 2.

Odenkirk hails from Chicago where he spent several years writing and performing sketch comedy. In 1987, he was hired to write for “Saturday Night Live” along with such comic superstars as Dana Carvey, Chris Farley and Chris Rock. He received an Emmy® Award in 1988 after creating characters including Grumpy Old Man, The Motivational Speaker and The Sportsfans (with fellow writer Robert Smigel). During the summer hiatus periods, Odenkirk returned to Chicago to perform sketch shows including the one-man hit “Half My Face is a Clown.” After moving to Los Angeles, Odenkirk quickly landed a job writing on Fox TV’s “Get A Life,” and took to the stage for his second one-man show, “Show-Acting-Guy,” at the Upfront Theatre in Santa Monica, which led to appearances on “The Dennis Miller Show” and “The A-List.” Odenkirk was hired as a cast member and writer on the short-lived cult hit “The Ben Stiller Show” in 1993, where he portrayed Manson Lassie and wrote many memorable sketches. In 1994, he met stand up comedian and actor David Cross and the two created the cult hit “Mr. Show.”

Odenkirk has guest-starred in numerous sitcoms including “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Ed.” He received critical acclaim for his recurring role as Larry’s unscrupulous agent on “The Larry Sanders Show.”

TOM WERNER (Producer) is partner and co-founder of Carsey-Werner, one of the most successful independent studios in television history. The company recently released its first feature, Let’s Go to Prison, directed by Bob Odenkirk and starring Dax Shephard, Will Arnett and Chi McBride.

The Emmy® winning producers of over 2,000 episodes of television and winner of numerous awards, Carsey-Werner has been one of the leading suppliers and distributors to the worldwide marketplace for over 20 years. As executive producer of such landmark programs as “The Cosby Show,” “Roseanne” and “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and major hits including “That ’70s Show,” “Grounded for Life,” “A Different World,” “Grace Under Fire,” “Cybill” and “Cosby,” Werner and his partner, Marcy Carsey, have helped create a vast library of programs seen in over 175 countries and translated into 50 different languages.

Werner started his TV career at ABC where he eventually became senior vice president of primetime series in 1980, helping develop such shows as “Mork & Mindy,” “Soap,” “Three’s Company” and “Love Boat.”

Before that, Werner was an award-winning documentary producer, noted for his film Shirley Chisholm: Pursuing the Dream, about the first female presidential candidate.

Werner has been inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ and Broadcasting and Cable Magazine’s Halls of Fame. More recently, he was appointed to the California Film Commission by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and has been on the White House Fellows Commission. He has also served on the board of a number of philanthropic organizations, including Crossroads School in Los Angeles and the Dana Farber Institute in Boston.

Werner also is chairman of the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox and a cum laude graduate from Harvard University.

MATT BERENSON (Producer) is the president of Carsey-Werner Films and the executive producer of the upcoming feature Smother, starring Diane Keaton. He recently produced the company’s first feature, Let’s Go to Prison.

Berenson previously produced Daddy Day Care through Davis Entertainment and coproduced the teen comedy Whatever it Takes. Before joining Carsey-Werner, Berenson was executive vice president of production for Red Wagon Entertainment, where he developed the Robin Williams comedy-adventure RV, and was the executive in charge of production for Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. He also served two years as the vice president of development at Jersey Films, where he worked on such films as Erin Brockovich and Out of Sight.

Berenson graduated from Princeton University in 1990 with a B.A. in history.

CARYN MANDABACH (Executive Producer)

Since 1984, Caryn Mandabach has developed and produced more than 1500 half hours of the highest quality comedy television. Her first effort, “The Cosby Show,” ran for eight seasons. Other hits include: “A Different World,” “Roseannne,” “Cybill,” “Third Rock from the Sun” and “That Seventies Show.” These shows, along with many others, created well over a billion dollars in value for what eventually became the Carsey-Werner- Mandabach Company -- the last, independent, comedy supplier in America.

In August 2004, Mandabach started her own company, eponymously titled Caryn Mandabach Productions. Thus far, CMP has garnered a deal with the BBC to own and produce 5 comedy scripts, three of which will be piloted for UK series consideration. Additionally, Mandabach has set up 5 scripts stateside to be produced for cable and network television. Canadian indie, Lionsgate, is the distributor of CMP product.

Mandabach has won numerous awards including an Emmy®, a Humanitas, a People’s Choice, and a Peabody. She has been a keynote speaker at the Edinburgh Television Festival, and has been honored by The Producer’s Guild, Promax, NATPE, Women in Film and numerous other organizations for her efforts.

She has two children, Marisa and Jonathan, whom she finds amusing.

PADDY CULLEN (Executive Producer) most recently served as executive producer on the hit thriller When a Stranger Calls, directed by Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and starring Camilla Belle for Screen Gems. Previously, Cullen teamed up with director Peyton Reed to produce the hit cheerleading drama Bring it On, starring Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union, and the romantic comedy Down with Love, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. Her executive producer credits also include Breakin’ All the Rules starring Jaime Foxx and My Boss’s Daughter starring Ashton Kutcher and Tara Reid.

Cullen’s producer credits include working with director Gary Hardwick on Deliver Us from Eva starring Gabrielle Union and LL Cool J and The Brothers starring Morris Chestnut,

D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy and Union. Cullen also served as co-producer on Go, directed by Doug Liman, and as associate producer on My Best Friend’s Wedding starring Julia Roberts. Her production supervisor credits include High School High, True Lies, How to Make an American Quilt and A Dangerous Woman.

TIM SUHRSTEDT, ASC (Director of Photography) has shot numerous feature films, including the upcoming The Last Time. He also served as cinematographer on Little Miss Sunshine, Idiocracy, Relative Strangers, Pumpkin, Clockstoppers, Summer Catch, Whatever it Takes, Office Space, The Wedding Singer, Major League III: Back to the Minors, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, Noises Off, The Flavor, Mystic Pizza, and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

His TV experience includes “Hidden Palms,” “Queen B,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Brotherhood Of Poland, New Hampshire,” “111 Gramercy Park,” “Close To Home,” “Time Of Your Life,” “The L Word,” “The Innocent” and “Chicago Hope.”

JOHN PAINO (Production Designer) has worked as a production designer of music videos, commercials and films. His music video work includes LL Cool J’s “Momma Said Knock You Out!” which was nominated for Best Art Direction, MTV Best Rap Video and Billboard Best Rap Video. His production designer credits include the Emmy® Award- winning “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and actor-director Tom McCarthy’s award- winning 2004 film, The Station Agent. Most recently, he completed McCarthy’s second feature, The Visitor.

TRACY WADMORE-SMITH (Editor) recently edited the independent feature London, starring Chris Evans, Jessica Biel and Jason Statham and BBC Films’ Life ’n’ Lyrics, starring Ashley Walters. She also edited the hit features Hitch and Sweet Home Alabama, both directed by Andy Tennant.

Wadmore-Smith got her first editor credit on “Mysteries of 71st Street,” a television pilot directed by Tennant, with whom she worked as an assistant on the films Anna and the King and Ever After.

Wadmore-Smith was born in Sutton, England, educated in Surrey, and obtained a degree in graphic design at The Reigate School of Art. After graduation, she took a production assistant position at Brian Eastman’s London-based production company, Carnival Films, which produced popular British television shows such as “Forever Green,” “Jeeves and Wooster” and “Inspector Poirot.”

She quickly moved to editorial where she worked as an assistant or associate editor on such prestigious films as Open Range, The Upside of Anger, The Majestic, The Salton Sea, American Beauty, Here on Earth and The Crucible.

MELINA ROOT (Costume Designer) previously worked on the feature film Wayne’s World 2. More recently, her work was seen on NBC’s “Twenty Good Years” with John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambour. Her designs for NBC’s “3rd Rock from the Sun” and Fox’s “That ’70s Show” received two Emmy® Awards and six Emmy® nominations, as well as five Costume Designers Guild Awards nominations. She also has designed costumes for “That ’80s Show,” “Normal, Ohio,” “Townies,” “The Martin Short Show,” “Saturday Night Live” (1990-1994) and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Root trained as a theater designer and has worked at the Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons and Circle Repertory Theater in New York City; Hartford Stage; Yale Repertory Theatre; The Juilliard School; LaJolla Playhouse; Goodman Theatre, Chicago; San Diego’s Old Globe; and the Mark Taper Forum and Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. She originated the designs for Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s groundbreaking musical, “Floyd Collins” and received a Drama Desk nomination for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacorte Theatre production of “As You Like It.”

JOHN SWIHART (Music by) has been writing and composing music for picture for over twelve years.

Swihart began his musical training at the early age of four, studying piano with Cola Heiden, the renowned pianist, professor of Music Studies at Indiana University, and wife of composer Bernard Heiden. At eight, John picked up the saxophone, and soon followed with the guitar, studying at Indiana University. He went on to attend Berklee College of Music, in Boston, studying Music Composition, Production, and Engineering.

After college, Swihart wrote and performed music with many bands in and around New England and New York. He also performed in musical theatre in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas with the Grammy-nominated Blue Man Group.

Swihart’s credits include such films as Employee of the Month, Sasquatch Dujmpling Gang, Daltry Calhoun, Napoleon Dynamite and Our Very Own, among others. His television credits include “How I Met Your Mother,” “Hope & Faith (Main Title),” MTV’s “Undressed,” and MTV’s “Real World.”