TODD STRAUSS-SCHULSON, DIRECTOR

Ever since his grandfather gave him a video camera for his Bar Mitzvah (after years of relentless pestering), Todd has been a one-man movie-making machine—directing, writing, shooting, and editing all of his own work. (View History Gallery).

Upon graduating from Emerson College, where he won numerous awards including Panavision’s prestigious New Filmmakers prize, Todd moved to Los Angeles. It wasn’t long before he was directing high concept music videos for major label artists. His most recent clip for Ben Lee, starring Tiffani Amber Thiessen, debuted on VH1’s Top 10 and spent 8 weeks on the Countdown.

His music video work led to a 6-month stint in China and Thailand, where he directed MTV Whatever Things, a more stylish version of “Jackass” with an all western cast. It became the most popular show on MTV Asia with an international audience of over 250 Million.

Back in the States, Todd has directed short films and TV shows with comic greats like Stephen Colbert, Richard Belzer, Lewis Black, Jeff Ross, Patton Oswalt, Colin Quinn, Jackie Mason, Laura Silverman, and Damon Wayans.

He has also worked on branding projects for national clients, including Sony Crackle, College Humor, Atom Films, Pepsi, Microsoft, Twix, Old Spice, Sierra Mist, Butterfinger, Philips, Nestea, Fender, Skoal Chewing Tobacco, Mountain Dew, Lipton, Nestlé among others.

Todd’s personal project Mano-A-Mano caught the attention of the William Morris Agency, who quickly signed him for feature film representation. The short was also a selection of the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival. In 2009 South By Southwest asked Todd back to premiere his new short Big Pussy which was subsequently selected to screen at the world famous Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.

Todd recently directed two Pilots. One for Comedy Central and Jimmy Kimmel’s Jackhole Productions the other for 20th Century Fox.

He is currently in production on his first feature film, “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” for New Line Cinema and Mandate.