ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

KAL PENN with Director MORT NATHAN
on the set of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S
VAN WILDER: THE RISE OF TAJ

MORT NATHAN (Director), a native of Chicago, Illinois, is a graduate of the Masters Film Program of New York University. He began his career as a writer on the hit TV show Benson. He soon went on to become the Executive Producer and head writer of The Golden Girls, for which he won two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Nathan has produced over 150 hours of prime time television and has created such television shows as The Fanelli Boys, The Louie Anderson Show, Pacific Station, Platypus Man and The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer. He also co-executive produced and co-starred in the reality series Situation Comedy for the Bravo TV network.

Nathan wrote the screenplay for the Farrelly Brothers’ Kingpin. He made his directorial debut with Boat Trip, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., which he also co-wrote.

Mr. Nathan’s most recent directorial project, The Farrelly Brothers comedy Champion Fill, is currently in preproduction.

DAVID DREW GALLAGHER (Screenplay) started his career as an actor, appearing in over thirty movies and television shows including Disclosure, The American President, From the Earth To the Moon, Norma Jean and Marilyn, Party of Five, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Hercules, Diagnosis Murder and Beverly Hills 90210.

Gallagher has also written Schooled (Disney), The Break Up Guy (Bauer Martinez) and The Next Scarpone (Fred Roos) Currently, he is producing and acting in the low budget film Above Water, which he also wrote.

Gallagher has one son, Dylan, and another baby on the way with his wife, Lauria.

PETER ABRAM (Producer) is a principal founder and partner of Tapestry Films. Since the inception of Tapestry 18 years ago as a financing and production company, Abrams has produced numerous hit films under the banner including Wedding Crasher, starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Christopher Walken; Serendipity, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale; Pay It Forward starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment; The Wedding Planner, starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey; Van Wilder, starring Ryan Reynolds; She’s All That with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook; Underclassman, starring Nick Cannon; Disney's A Kid In King Arthur’s Court; Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze; and Employee of the Month, starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard.

Peter Abrams has produced 15 award-winning children’s videos starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, which consistently ranked among the top of the best-seller lists. The three most recent productions were Winning London, When In Rome, and The Challenge.

Prior to forming his creative partnership with Robert L. Levy, Abram s produced A Talent For Murder, starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Angela Lansbury for Showtime's Broadway on Showtime. Before entering the film business, Abrams spent two years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his J.D. degree at George Washington University's School of Law.

ROBERT L. LEVY (Producer) has written and/or produced motion pictures for over 20 years and is a principal partner with Peter Abrams and Andrew Panay in Tapestry Films. Levy has also directed and produced A Kid In Aladdin’s Court, the sequel to Tapestry's A Kid In King Arthur’s Court.

Levy recently produced the hit films The Wedding Crashers, starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Christopher Walken; Underclassman, starring Nick Cannon; Serendipity starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale; The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey; Van Wilder starring Ryan Reynolds; She’s All That with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook; and Employee of the Month, starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard. His additional producing credits include Pay It Forward, Point Break, Jane Austen’s Mafia!, The Last Time I Committed Suicide, Enemy of My Enemy, Denial, Full Eclipse, Warlock – The Armageddon and A Killing Time.

Levy has also executive produced such films as Swing, Black & White, Payback, The Chain, The Granny and Dark Tide. He also executive produced and wrote the story for the Burt Reynolds classic Smokey and the Bandit.

Levy graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles and received a producing fellowship from the American Film Institute.

ANDREW PANAY (Producer) is one of three partners at Tapestry Films, a Beverly Hills-based motion picture finance and production company. He is responsible for developing Miramax’s She’s All That, and co-producing Serendipity starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. He served as Executive Producer on On the Line starring Lance Bass and Joey Fatone of "In Sync". He also created the idea and roduced Artisan’s National Lampoon’s Van Wilder starring Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid. He is responsible for setting up and developing Pay It Forward starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment at Warner Bros. Panay also produced the teen thriller Underclassman starring Nick Cannon, and the acclaimed summer film The Wedding Crashers, starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, which has grossed $209,000,000 domestically. Most recently, he produced Employee of the Month for Lionsgate starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard.

HUBERT TACZANOWSKI (Director of Photography) was born in Warsaw, Poland in the sixties, and grew up in an artistically charged environment. His father ran several Warsaw theatres over the course of his career, and also worked as a successful television director. His mother was an art critic for a leading polish newspaper.

Hubert went on to major and graduate in Cinematography at the Lodz Film School, the most prestigious film school in Eastern Europe. Before graduating, Taczanowski began to work in the Polish film industry as the director of Photography on many films. Taczanowski emigrated to the United States in the eighties as a political refugee, landing in New York City. In a matter of a few months, thanks to some lucky breaks, he began shooting shorts and music videos. One of his very first music videos won the MTV Music Video of the Year Award.

Since then, Taczanowski has gone on to be Director of Photography on nineteen feature films and two television series. His films have been screened at the Sundance, Venice, Toronto, Edinburgh and Berlin Film Festivals enjoying much commercial success. His credits include Hotel Infinity, Deathwatch, My Little Eye, Tadpole, Home Movie, Turn It Up, The Opposite of Sex, Chicago Cab and The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, among others.

JOHN AXNESS (Editor) received a bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of Illinois. He joined Telemation Productions in Chicago where he directed and edited hundreds of commercials, promos, and corporate videos. Commercial clients included Newsweek, Radio Shack, Nissan, AMC, and Wards; corporate clients included Casio, Magnavox, MacDonalds, and Standard Oil. He received the Andy Award for best director from the Advertising Club of New York, and a VPA Monitor Award for editing a Newsweek spot.

Axness studied improvisation at The Second City in Chicago and performed regularly at colleges and clubs across the country including The Comedy Store and The Improv in Los Angeles.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Axness joined the Directors Guild as an associate director for network and syndicated television series and specials including People Are Funny, a series for NBC, and The Jerry Lewis Telethon (a 22-hour live event). He then became an assistant director for several lowbudget feature films including Blueberry Hill, Disorderlies and Nights In White Satin. Axness continued to edit: The History Of White People In America, a series for Cinemax; The Dave Thomas Show for CBS; a documentary for Douglas Trumbull and NHK in Japan titled Film As Experience; and the comedy series Grosse Pointe for the WB Network.

Axness segued to producing and directing segments for the Disney Channel series Epcot Magazine. He directed BreakthroughI a magazine format pilot, and co-produced and directed the Cinemax Comedy Experiment Merrill Markoe’s Guide To Glamorous Living starring Martin Mull, David Letterman, Garry Shandling, Fred Willard, Andrea Martin, and Harry Shearer.

Axness wrote the TV movie Lucky Day, an "ABC Theater" Presentation starring Olympia Dukakis, Amy Madigan, and Chloe Webb, which won the $25,000 Humanitas Prize for writing. He directed episodes of the comedy series DREAM ON for HBO and wrote and directed segments for The Big Moment on ABC. He directed second unit and edited the feature film Boat Trip starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Roger Moore, and edited the prequel to the film Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion for Touchstone.

John has been nominated for four CableACE awards: editor of the Cinemax Comedy Experiment This Week Indoors, producer of Merrill Markoe’s Guide To Glamorous Living, editor of the Dream On pilot episode (which he won), and director of Dream On.

He has recently finished cutting the third season of Rescue Me for FX and is currently cutting the new comedy series Big Day for ABC.

SHERWOOD JONES (Editor) has been making films since the age of 11, starting in the Super 8 world and advancing through 16mm and various video formats. He won a Student Academy Award for his master's thesis film as well as a national student editing competition conducted by the American Cinema Editors. As an editor, he began in 1985 working with physically cutting film, moving on to electronic editing in the 90s, and continues to welcome the latest advances in the technology.

He has cut films across a gamut of genres, from action (Diplomatic Siege, with Peter Weller; The Chain, with Gary Busey) through comedy (Bottoms Up with Paris Hilton; The Granny, with Stella Stevens), and drama (Doomsday Man, with Esai Morales, Instinct To Kill, with Mark Descascos), as well as seven of the very successful Mary-Kate and Ashley direct-to-video features. He has also acted as postproduction supervisor on most of these films.

STEPHANIE COLLIE (Costume Designer) has previously designed for films including Ecstasy, I Want Candy, The Thief Lord, Layer Cake, Floating, Suzie Gold, I’ll Be There, The American Embasy, Another Life, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Among Giants, and Stiff Upper Lips, among numerous others.

CHRIS ROOPE (Production Designer) designed Mike Binder's acclaimed drama The Upside Of Anger, starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. His other credits as Production Designer include Debbie Issit's Confetti; Pete Hewitt's Thunderpants; the Paramount/Fox TV series Keen Eddie; Pete Hewitt's TV film The Princess of Thieves; and the TV film Sherlock: A Case of Evil.

Roope also served as art director on Peter Cattaneo's smash hit The Full Monty. He is currently working on Anton Corbijn's directorial debut Control, which charts the final years of Ian Curtis, the singer of the British band Joy Division.

ROBERT FOLK (Music) is a graduate and former faculty member of the famed Juilliard School in New York City. Since completing his doctorate, Mr. Folk has composed and conducted the musical scores for over 50 feature films. His extensive credits include Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Nothing To Lose, Tremors, The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter, Toy Soldiers, Police Academy, Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, Boat Trip, Back in the Day, American Pie: Band Camp and most recently, Antonio Vivaldi. Folk has worked with many top filmmakers including Steve Oedekerk, George Gallo, Dan Petrie Jr., Gary Sinise, Hugh Wilson, Jonathan Betuel, Don Bluth, Jon Davison, Gary Goldman, Steve Rash, David Permut, Andy Hurst, Gene Quintano, Roger Birnbaum, Ron Underwood, Mark Burg, Thom Mount, Paul Maslansky, Michael Caleo, George Miller, Fred Zollo, Marty Bregman, Gale Anne Hurd, Marco Weber, Ringo Lam, James Robinson, Richard Williams, Jake Eberts and Gary Barber, to name a few. Folk has also composed and conducted numerous concert works including Symphonic, Vocal and Chamber music compositions. His Ballet “To Dream Of Roses,” composed for the Osaka Worlds Fair, was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Mr Folk is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

He is a prolific songwriter and producer, and has conducted many prominent orchestras including: The London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Berlin Radio Orchestra, The Munich Symphony, The Dublin Symphony Orchestra, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonia.

CHRIS VIOLETTE (Music Supervisor) is a music publisher and music supervisor with varied experience in music and filmed entertainment.

Violette’s eclectic background in music and film provides a unique foundation and perspective for a music publishing company. After studying music production and engineering at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, he co-founded the College Representative Program for PolyGram Group Distribution where he played an integral role in breaking artists among the college demographic for Motown, Polydor, Mercury, A&M, Island, and PolyGram Classics & Jazz. Later, as A&R Manager for Island Records, Violette signed new talent to the label and wrote or co-wrote marketing plans for U2, the cranberries, Melissa Etheridge, and The Stereo MCs.

Violette has since followed his career in A&R as a music supervisor with more than 25 feature film soundtracks to his credit including Eulogy starring Ray Romano; People I Know with Al Pacino and Kim Basinger; the Keanu Reeves starrer The Last Time I Committed Suicide; and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. Current pictures include Conversations With Other Women starring Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart, and the epic independent feature Nomad to be distributed by the new Weinstein Company. Through his work as a music supervisor Violette has been at the forefront of commissioning original scores from non-union orchestras around the world including the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, England, and various cities in the United States.

In 2001-2003 Violette put his combined talents and skills together as the Head of Music for independent film shingle Myriad Pictures where he was responsible for all creative, legal, and marketing related music matters.

Violette recently founded Second Spring Music Publishing, a music publishing company engaged in the business of acquiring, administering, and exploiting copyrights to musical compositions and recordings. Second Spring’s catalogue is administered outside of North America by Universal Music Publishing Group.

Violette lives in Los Angeles, California, and is represented by Soundtrack Music Associates.