Tom Shadyac
| Tom Shadyac | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Thomas Peter Shadyac December 11, 1958 Falls Church, Virginia, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Virginia |
| Occupation | Comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, author, occasional actor |
| Years active | 1984–2010 |
| Notable work |
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective The Nutty Professor Liar Liar Bruce Almighty I Am |
Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyac (born December 11, 1958) is an American comedian, director, screenwriter, producer, author and occasional film actor. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty. In 2010, Shadyac departed from comedic work to write, direct, and narrate the documentary film I Am, in which he explores his abandonment of a materialistic lifestyle following a bicycle accident in 2007.
Shadyac is a former adjunct professor of communication at Pepperdine University's Seaver College. In 2011 he was a participant in the Conference on World Affairs. In 2015, Shadyac began teaching film at the University of Colorado Boulder, beginning with that year's Spring semester, Shadyac now teaches film at the University of Memphis.
Shadyac was born in Falls Church, Virginia to Julie and Richard Shadyac, a lawyer. His mother was of Lebanese descent, while his father was of half-Irish and half-Lebanese ancestry. His mother, who died of cancer in 1998, had become semi-quadriplegic and spent much of Shadyac's adult life in a wheelchair.
Shadyac attended J. E. B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, where he had played basketball, participated in the Key Club, and made the Junior National and National Honor Societies. In both 1975 and 1976, Shadyac was included in the now-defunct "Who's Who Among High School Students" website and book, prior to his graduation in 1976.
As a pre-law student at the University of Virginia, Shadyac produced a poster entitled "Are You a Preppie?" Borrowing from the style of National Lampoon magazine, and based on the large number of preppies in Charlottesville and nearby Richmond, Virginia, the poster preceded the more well-known The Official Preppy Handbook. The poster went into multiple printings and served as a fundraiser for his fraternity, Sigma Chi.
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