September 2011 Contest

Matt Greenberg earned his BA in Medieval Studies from Yale. He also studied acting and writing at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Matt’s film credits include 1408, starring John Cusack and Samuel Jackson, Halloween H:20, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Prophecy II, starring Jennifer Beals, all for Dimension, and Reign of Fire, starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, for Touchstone.

In television, Matt served as creator and producer of the SyFy series The Invisible Man, as well as the Fair-Haired Child episode for the Masters of Horror anthology series on Showtime.

Upcoming projects include Seventh Son, starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore, for Legendary/Warner Bros, Pet Sematary, based on the classic Steven King horror novel, for Paramount, as well as Primordia, for Hasbro/Imagine.

Matt is married to television writer/producer Valerie Mayhew (The X-Files, Charmed, The Fugitive) with whom he has three wonderful daughters. When he’s not tearing his hair out over his scripts, he enjoys playing folk harp and classical guitar as well as going scuba diving and hiking. He particularly enjoys telling horrific stories of his many years in Hollywood.

After his debut feature film, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Public Access, Bryan Singer gained widespread attention in 1995 with The Usual Suspects, starring Chazz Palminteri, Benicio Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollack and Kevin Spacey. The film won two Academy Awards®, Spacey for Best Supporting Actor and Christopher McQuarrie for Best Original Screenplay. Singer’s next feature was acclaimed Apt Pupil, adapted from a Stephen King novella and starring Sir Ian McKellen.

Singer followed in 2000 with X-Men and in 2003 with its sequel X2: X-Men United, featuring an all-star cast led by Hugh Jackman, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellan, and Halle Berry.

Singer was then tapped by Warner Brothers to helm Superman Returns, which was the first blockbuster shot on the Panavision Genesis digital camera.

His most recent film, the World War 2 thriller Valkyrie, starred Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, and Bill Nighy.

In television, Singer directed the pilot and serves as an Executive Producer on House, starring Hugh Laurie. He also served as Executive Producer on Dirty Sexy Money, starring Donald Sutherland.

Singer has directed and/or produced a myriad of other projects through his Bad Hat Harry Productions banner; which he formed in 1994. Projects include the documentary Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, the Syfy Channel miniseries The Triangle, film festival favorite Trick ‘r Treat, and the upcoming sci-fi web series H+ for Warner Bros.

Most recently, Singer has returned to the X-Men universe as producer on X-Men: First Class, a prequel based on his original story. He is currently directing the epic 3D live action film, Jack the Giant Killer.

Singer’s projects have grossed more than two billion dollars worldwide.

Jim Whitaker is the Chairman of Whitaker Entertainment, which is based at Walt Disney Pictures. He is the founder and director of Rebirth, a feature-length documentary combining time-lapse photography of the World Trade Center site with the intimate stories of five people coping with grief post-9/11. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in August of that year.

Jim began his career at Imagine Entertainment as an intern, rising to President of Motion Picture Production in 2004. He has executive produced such films as Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, Changeling, American Gangster, Cinderella Man, and Curious George. He most recently produced The Odd Life of Timothy Green for Disney, which will be released in 2012. His first job in the business was assisting craft services on John Waters’ Hairspray.

Jim is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds an MFA from the Peter Stark Program at USC. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Whitaker currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two children.