Steven Brill
Born: Utica, New York, USA
The actor, writer and director is the brains behind hockey yarn The Mighty Ducks and well as being a regular collaborator with Adam Sandler.
He was struck by the Mighty Ducks idea while watching a children's hockey practice while auditioning as an actor and writing scripts in LA.
The 1992 Disney movie, which starred Emilio Estevez as the wistful underdog, went on to spawn two sequels.
Brill studied film, theatre and acting at Boston University's Film School, before moving to California.
He made his big screen debut with Disney's Heavyweights, a comedy about a summer weight loss camp, starring Ben Stiller.
He went on to write several feature scripts and in 1997 did the production re-write on Dr. Dolittle starring Eddie Murphy.
As an actor, he made his debut in 1989 as a barfly in Sex, Lies & Videotape and subsequently appeared in Postcards from the Edge, Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns.
A regular collaborator with Adam Sandler, he wrote and directed Little Nicky in 2000 and followed that up with another Sandler vehicle - Mr Deeds - two years later.
Recent work includes the lame comedy Without A Paddle, a sort of spoof of Deliverance starring Matthew Lillard and Burt Reynolds.
