Jon Turteltaub

Born: 1964
Where: New York, USA

The director won rave reviews for the surprise comedy hit Cool Runnings, about a Jamaican Olympic bobsled team.

Other hits have included the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping and and the Bruce Willis Comedy Disney's The Kid.

The son of television producer Saul Turteltaub, he moved with his family to California and attended Beverly Hills High School.

(former pupils have included Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz and Turteltaub's contemporary Nic Cage).

After graduating from Wesleyan University he studied for a masters degree at the University of Southern California Film School in 1988.

He made his big screen debut with the comedy Think Big two years later and went on to direct and co-write the comedy Driving Me Crazy in 1991.

The following year he scored a hit with Disney's 3 Ninjas and consolidated his position with Cool Runnings in 1993.

Sandra Bullock starred in the comedy While You Were Sleeping and then Turteltaub switched genres for the romantic fantasy Phenomenon with John Travolta.

In 1999, he directed the gorilla-poacher thriller Instinct with Anthony Hopkins and went on to make the Bruce Willis comedy The Kid.

Recent work includes the chase thriller National Treasure with Nic Cage and Sean Bean.