Jessie Nelson (Director/Producer/Co-Screenwriter)
Director/Producer/Screenwriter Jessie Nelson struck a chord in the hearts of moviegoers with her directorial debut Corrina, Corrina starring Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta and Tina Majorino. She followed the film by co-writing the 1998 box office hit Stepmom starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. Nelson most recently co-wrote and produced with Alan Zweibel The Story of Us, directed by Rob Reiner and starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Nelson began her career as an actress in New York working with the Obie Award-winning experimental theater Mabou Mines in Joseph Papp's Public Theater. She went on to the New York Shakespeare Festival starring opposite Raul Julia in "The Tempest" in Central Park. Brought out to Los Angeles by Columbia Pictures' talent development program, she went on to act in numerous films and series. Used to the creative collaborative of her New York theater experiences, Nelson co-wrote her first screenplay (about her experiences as a waitress) which sold to Disney Studios. Surprised by the lack of control writers have over their material, Nelson set out to learn how to direct.

Nelson began her career as a filmmaker when she directed the documentary, "My First Time," which paved the way for her acceptance into the prestigious Chanticleer program, where she directed the award-winning film "To The Moon Alice" for Showtime. Nelson is married to filmmaker Bryan Gordon and lives in Los Angles with their daughter Molly June Gordon.

Edward Zwick (Producer)
Edward Zwick received an Academy Award as one of the producers of 1998's Best Picture winner, Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden, and most recently produced the Oscar-winning Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Zwick began directing and acting in high school. He trained as an apprentice at the Academy Festival in Lake Forest, and, while studying literature at Harvard, he continued writing and directing for the theatre. Upon graduation, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to study abroad with some of the major innovative theatre companies. In Europe, he supplemented his fellowship income by writing magazine articles and later he worked for Woody Allen in Paris on the film Love and Death.

Zwick was accepted as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute, where he directed the short film Timothy and the Angel, which won first place in the student film competition at the 1976 Chicago Film Festival and caught the attention of the producers of the television series, "Family." He was invited to write an episode and subsequently became the show's story editor. He then began directing episodes, and eventually was named producer for the final season.

Zwick later directed such television films and pilots as "Paper Dolls," "Having It All", "Making Out" and "The Outsiders." For his work on the television movie "Special Bulletin" (as Director, Producer and Co-writer), Zwick received two Emmy Awards. It also marked the beginning of his collaboration with Marshall Herskovitz, with whom he then created the Emmy Award-winning television show, "thirtysomething." Later, they would work together on the series "My So-Called Life," "Relativity" and the current hit "Once and Again."

Zwick began his feature film career with About Last Night… He then went on to direct the Academy Award-winning film Glory. Following that, he directed Leaving Normal and the hit film Legends Of The Fall, which won an Oscar for Cinematographer John Toll. Zwick then reteamed with Denzel Washington in two timely and relevant films, Courage Under Fire and The Siege.

To date, Zwick has been honored with three Emmy Awards, the Humanitas Prize, the Writers Guild of America Award, two Peabody Awards, a Directors Guild of America Award and the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Award from the American Film Institute.

Marshall Herskovitz (Producer)
Along with Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz created the Bedford Falls Company in 1985, which immediately made its mark in television with the Emmy Award-winning ABC series "thirtysomething." For his work on the series, Herskovitz received two Emmy Awards, two Directors Guild Awards, a Writers Guild Award, a Humanitas Award, a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, and the Peabody Award, among other honors. Herskovitz and Zwick most recently produced the highly acclaimed, Academy Award-winning Traffic, an intricate and moving drama about drugs in American society.

Herskovitz became interested in filmmaking while studying at Brandeis University, where he wrote a screenplay of "Beowulf" as his senior thesis. After graduation he wrote, produced, and directed a short film entitled In Footsteps, which gained him acceptance to the American Film Institute in 1975, at which he earned an MFA in 1978. Herskovitz then spent several years writing and directing for episodic television, including such shows as "Family" and "The White Shadow," until he teamed up with Edward Zwick to create the multi-award winning television movie "Special Bulletin." Herskovitz won two Emmys, a Writers Guild Award, and the Humanitas Award for his work.

Herskovitz and Zwick then teamed to found The Bedford Falls Company, named for the town in It's a Wonderful Life, as a home for their film and television projects. In addition to "thirtysomething," the company has produced such acclaimed television dramas as "My So-Called Life," "Relativity" and the current hit "Once and Again."

Herskovitz made his feature directorial debut with Jack The Bear, starring Danny DeVito, then produced Legends of the Fall, starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, and produced and directed the historical epic Dangerous Beauty starring Catherine McCormack and Rufus Sewell.

Richard Solomon (Producer)
Richard Solomon is president of The Bedford Falls Company, where he executive produced the Academy Award-winning Traffic. Under his presidency, the company also produced the acclaimed series "Relativity," the current hit "Once and Again" and the feature films Shakespeare In Love and The Siege.

Prior to joining The Bedford Falls Company, Solomon was president of Donner-Shuler Productions where he co-produced Radio Flyer, Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Assassins and Conspiracy Theory and also oversaw the development of projects such as Dave and Maverick.

David Scott Rubin (Executive Producer)
David Scott Rubin most recently co-produced screenwriter Daniel Waters' directorial debut Happy Campers for Di Novi Pictures. Rubin also produced writer/director Jason Freeland's adaptation of James Ellroy's Brown's Requiem for Lions Gate Films, the 1997 Toronto Film Festival standout Touch Me and Cleopatra's Second Husband, which premiered at the 1998 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

Kristine Johnson (Co-Screenwriter)
Kristine Johnson, who along with co-writer and director Jessie Nelson, spent several years of her life to bring I Am Sam from idea to screen. She previously co-wrote Imaginary Crimes with Davia Nelson, which starred Harvey Keitel, Kelly Lynch and Fairuza Balk. While working with producer Larry Brezner, she was involved with the development of such films as Good Morning Vietnam and Coupe De Ville and was co-producer of Throw Momma From the Train. Currently working on a script with director Allison Anders, Johnson lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

Elliot Davis (Director of Photography)
Elliot Davis brings his unique visual sensibilities to I Am Sam with a visceral, hand-held style that takes audiences inside Sam's unpredictable world. Davis previously won acclaim for his stylish cinematography on Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed thriller Out Of Sight. Davis had earlier earned an Independent Spirit Award for his work on Soderbergh's The Underneath and also collaborated with the director on the films Gray's Anatomy and King of the Hill.

Davis has also collaborated with director Alan Rudolph on a number of films, including Equinox, Love at Large, Mortal Thoughts and Breakfast of Champions. Among his credits are also Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, Lawn Dogs, Get on the Bus, Larger Than Life, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Mother's Boys, The Cutting Edge, Bright Angel and Miles From Home.

Davis's most recent film credits include John Schlesinger's The Next Best Thing, Light It Up and White Oleander starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn.

Aaron Osborne (Production Designer)
Aaron Osborne has previously designed for numerous independent films, including Luckytown Blues, Trippin, Another Day in Paradise, Don't Be A Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood with the Wayans brothers, Top of the World with Dennis Hopper and Spent. He also served as a production designer on the 1998 television series Wind on Water and the 1999 teen hit Drive Me Crazy.

Osborne also has an extensive theater background running the Los Angeles Theater Carnivale performance troupe where he is a three-year "Best of LA" Award winner.

Susie DeSanto (Costume Designer)
Susie DeSanto has collaborated numerous times with Michelle Pfeiffer as the costume designer on the films What Lies Beneath, One Fine Day and Deep End of the Ocean, as well as the recently-completed White Oleander. She also designed the costumes for the box office hit Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock and Michael Caine.

Her other film credits include Hope Floats, Bad Girls, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, A Dangerous Woman and Ruby.

Richard Chew, A.C.E. (Editor)
Richard Chew is an Academy-Award winner for his work as co-editor on the 1977 classic Star Wars. He was also nominated for an Oscar and honored with a British Academy Award for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Prior to that, Chew won his first British Academy Award with Walter Murch for The Conversation.

Additional credits include Hope Floats, That Thing You Do!, Waiting to Exhale, Singles, Men Don't Leave, Clean and Sober, Real Genius, Risky Business, My Favorite Year and Goin' South.

Most recently, he worked on Shanghai Noon, for which he received an A.C.E. Award Nomination. Chew began his career in documentaries and in 1967 worked as a cameraman and editor on The Redwoods, which won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary.

John Powell (Composer)
Steeped in classical tradition, yet drawn to the idea of turning it on its head, John Powell has composed a series of acclaimed motion picture soundtracks since arriving in American four years ago. He brought out the film noir undertones of John Woo's direction for Face/Off and co-wrote four imaginative scores for the animated films Antz, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run and Shrek. He's also the creative voice behind the hip, experimental scores for Forces of Nature and Endurance. Powell's most recent feature credits include Evolution and Rat Race.

Powell attended London's Trinity College of Music, where he studied composition, earning the John Halford and the Boosey and Hawkes Music College Awards. While at Trinity, Powell joined performance art group Media Arts. With longtime collaborator Gavin Greenaway, he composed music and sound for their conceptual performances. Although the duo left the troupe upon graduating in 1986, they continue to co-create mixed-media installation pieces with artist Michael Petry, the most recent featuring bare-bottomed men and a German brass ensemble.

Powell made his first foray into feature films at London's Air-Edel Music in 1989. There he worked along side composers Hans Zimmer and Patrick Doyle, assisting Doyle with the score of Into the West and writing cues and working as an electronic music programmer for Zimmer on White Fang.

In 1994 Powell left Air-Edel to co-found (with Greenaway) London-based commercial music house Independently Thinking Music (ITM). Together they composed scores for more than a hundred high-profile European ad campaigns.

Arriving in the States in 1997, he immediately scored two Dreamworks TV projects: the second season of Steven Spielberg's "High Incident" and the pilot "For the People." He also arranged songs composed by Stephen Schwartz for the Dreamworks animated feature The Prince of Egypt.

Some of Powell's other film credits include With Friends Like These and Just Visiting, as well as the upcoming films Eye See You and Pluto Nash.

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