Alma mater NYU (MFA '96) Role Producer | Years active 1987-present Children Meg Taylor Name Jim Taylor | |
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Education New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Asia, Pomona College, New York University, Bellevue High School Awards Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Movies Sideways, The Descendants, Jurassic Park III, About Schmidt, Election Similar People | ||
Occupation Screenwriter, producer | ||
Jim Taylor (born 1963 in Seattle, Washington) is an American producer and screenwriter who has often collaborated on projects with Alexander Payne. The two are business partners in the Santa Monica based Ad Hominem Enterprises, and are credited as co-writers of six films released between 1996 and 2007: Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001, with Peter Buchman), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007, with Barry Fanaro and Lew Gallo). His credits as a producer include films such as Cedar Rapids and The Descendants.
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Early years
Taylor is a graduate of Bellevue High School and a 1984 graduate of Pomona College, a liberal arts school he attended instead of accepting an offer from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Career
Taylor began working for Cannon Films in 1987. After visiting China on an Avery Foundation grant, Taylor returned to L.A. and spent three years working with Ivan Passer; he also worked for Devon Foster, a director at HBO, as Foster's assistant.
Taylor met Payne while working temporary jobs in Los Angeles, eventually moving in with him for financial reasons. While roommates the two wrote short films and started writing Citizen Ruth. After winning money on the game show Wheel of Fortune, Taylor entered Tisch School of the Arts at the age of 30. He and Payne did further rewrites on Citizen Ruth while Taylor was a graduate student; the film got made during his third year there. Taylor received an M.F.A. in Filmmaking from New York University in 1996.
Awards and nominations
Taylor has received numerous awards and nominations, all shared with Alexander Payne and almost all for his work on Sideways: