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I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the suburbs. At New York University Film School, I made several short films, one of which, Schatt's Last Shot, was particularly popular. A screening was set up in Los Angeles, and the next day I was seated in the office of the (then) president of 20th Century/Fox, Scott Rudin. A three-picture writing deal with Fox was quickly followed by an additional three-picture deal with Columbia. Unfortunately, the only thing I really liked about these deals was telling everyone I had them. I had a script I then took to Propaganda Pictures, who then got Polygram to finance it as my first feature. This was a not a happy experience. Released by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, the movie, Fear, Anxiety and Depression, (which I would rather have had titled The Young and the Hopeless), was a disappointment. Afterwards I left the business (or it left me) and, lacking any marketable skill, became an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher to newly arrived Russian immigrants. Pretending I had never gotten involved in film in the first place, I lived happily for several years. But then one day, when a lawyer/friend of mine said she was able to raise financing for a low-budget independent feature, I felt it was time to have second thoughts. I had written the screenplay for Welcome to the Dollhouse years before, when I was still active, in part to redeem myself from the horror of my first feature experience, and it was a script I had always been fond of. Evidently, I decided to reactivate.