Dan Algrant

Born: USA

The writer and director first attracted attention with his debut feature, the romantic comedy Naked In New York.

The film, produced by Martin Scorcese and starring Eric Stoltz, premiered at the Sundance Festival and won the Deauville Festival audience award.

Algrant studied filmmaking at Columbia University, where one of his instructors was Scorsese, who was impressed with his short films.

These included Cathedral, Some Film Chopping Wood and Anything for Jazz, a mini biopic of the musician Jaki Byard.

Scorsese was so impressed that he told Algrant that if he wanted to write a full-length screenplay, he would serve as executive producer.

The result was Naked in New York, a semi-autobiographical comedy about a fledgling playwright.

Algrant went on to direct several series of Sex and the City before his second feature, the romantic comedy People I Know with Al Pacino and Kim Basinger.