Jay Russell

Jay Russell

Jay Russell (born January 10, 1960 in North Little Rock, Arkansas), is an American film director, writer and producer. He graduated from Columbia University in 1985 with a MFA in screenwriting and directing, having studied with producer Michael Hausman and director Miloš Forman. His debut film, End of the Line (1987), was a Sundance Institute project and was released by Orion Classics. He has since written projects for Paramount Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and TriStar Pictures and has directed numerous documentaries for PBS, Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, CBS, Fox, USA Network and NBC. Russell returned to feature film directing with the Warner Bros. family film My Dog Skip (2000). He next directed two Disney features, Tuck Everlasting (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004). His most recent films include The Water Horse (2007) and the Hallmark original film One Christmas Eve (2014). Russell served as a producer on Whole Lotta Sole (2011) and the 2015 stage adaptation of the Cornell Woolrich thriller Rear Window, starring his End of the Line and My Dog Skip (2000) collaborator Kevin Bacon.

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