Rod Lurie

Born: 15 May, 1962
Where: Tel Aviv, Israel

Lurie attended the highly prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point and subsequently served in the US army for four years.

His part-time work as a freelance movie reviewer lead to a full-time critic job for Los Angeles Magazine and various LA based radio stations.

The Israeli-born critic turned director stunned audiences in 2000 with his hotly debated political thriller The Contender which garnered two Oscar nominations.

His short film, Four Second Delay, which he felt answered some of the unfinished Watergate questions, won the Jury Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival in 1998.