A onetime actor/comedian and the youngest writer to work for comedy legend Bob Hope, Tom Shadyac’s writing/directing career was launched in 1994 with the Jim Carrey smash hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. In the years that followed, Shadyac would establish himself as one of the most prolific comedy directors in Hollywood while working with some of the biggest names in the business.  Huge hits such as Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Accepted , and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, have helped establish Shadyac as one of Hollywood’s most successful writer/director/producers.

A Virginia native, Shadyac has received four people’s choice awards, including three for best comedy (Liar, Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty) and one for best new Television Comedy, with 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.  With Patch Adams, Shadyac earned his first Golden Globe nomination, also for best comedy.

In his latest project, a documentary entitled I AM, Shadyac asks some of today’s most profound thinkers, two questions – What’s wrong with our world, and what can we do about it? This moving, inspiring film won the Audience Choice Award and the Student Choice Award at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado, where it premiered in May.