Jeremy Sklar

Jeremy (Jer) Sklar was born in Chicago and has pursued a life as an actor, writer and director ever since his professional debut as an actor at the Tony Award Winning Victory Gardens Theater at the age of 15. Mr. Sklar went on to work for such comedic talent in television as Norman Steinberg (Blazing Saddles) Bob Saget and was even blessed with two days of intense screen test auditions for Francis Ford Coppola during the casting of the television show "The Outsiders." During the 1990's Mr. Sklar studied The Sanford Meisner Technique at Playhouse West under film actor Jeff Goldblum and instructor Robert Carnegie. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, Mr. Sklar worked behind the scenes of the film industry as a Development Executive for Strategic Film Partners and Topanga Pictures, honing his skills as a writer and producer. His pilot "Hollywoodn't" was an Accolade Award Winner for best new pilot and was screened for Michael Rosenstein, VP of Original Programming at HBO, who in his words, put it on his "I liked it but who the hell are you, you need a name show runner" shelf. In 2010, Mr. Sklar wrote, co-produced and directed twelve days as "L.A. Director" (aka ghost director) for the cult parkour-action-comedy FREERUNNER starring Sean Faris and Seymour Cassel, which went on to a successful screening outside of competition at Cannes and sold to over thirty-five countries worldwide. In 2011, Mr. Sklar co-produced a pilot with his Emmy Award winning brother Chuck Sklar. Emmy Award Winning Comedian Chris Rock later came on as Executive Producer. The show, TOTALLY BIASED, ran on F/X and FXX for two years, where Mr. Sklar served as a contributing writer and segment producer. Mr. Sklar has also successfully worked as a screenwriter for hire in Hollywood, selling six of his screenplays, one of which, the horror/thriller "Air Disturbance" was optioned by New Films International where he got to work with one of his long time idols, Joe Dante (GREMLINS, THE HOWLING). Most recently, he was hired to write a screenplay "Private Hell of Private Hollinger" based on a story idea from Producer Mike Elliott (MTV Teen Wolf). But Mr. Sklar's leanings have always been more for the personal, independent cinema, and he felt now was the time to go to Graduate school to immerse himself in the latest technology for awhile, and learn how to shoot, edit, light and become much more of a "hands on" filmmaker, in the hopes that he may one day teach while making films in the city he loves so much. His overall goal: help do for Chicago what Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater helped do for Austin: to increase it's profile on the world stage as one of the ultimate places to study film, shoot a movie, make a television show, as well as to see, discuss and enjoy the art of cinema.