A New York native, Jake has professional experience in most aspects of the film industry.  He began his career as a soundman and stagehand in Kansas City and has shot and/or directed commercials for Harley Davidson Motorcycles, the U.S. Army, the Kansas City Chiefs, Jiffy Lube, and many others.  His experience in the physical side of production led him to team up with two former Miramax Films executives at Gotham Entertainment Group.  There, he played an important role in the development and production of Goodbye, Lover, a film directed by Roland Joffe, starring Patricia Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres, Dermot Mulroney and Don Johnson, and released by Warner Bros.  Jake completed his tenure at Gotham as the Director of Production where he controlled a slate of feature and documentary films.

His writing accolades include being named the Grand Prize Winner in American Zoetrope’s inaugural Screenplay Contest, where his Irish epic, The Fergus Cycle, beat out 2,185 other entries, the top ten of which were read and judged by Francis Ford Coppola. (www.zoetrope.com/files/pri/168/z.htm)

He also received funding from Bord Scannan na hEireann/The Irish Film Board, whose financing is going toward the development and production of The Fergus Cycle.  (www.filmboard.ie)   Moreover, the actor Hugh O’Conor (My Left Foot, Young Poisoner’s Handbook, Chocolat) flew to New York to play Fergus in a staged reading of the script at New York’s Irish Arts Center.

Jake has written, directed, shot and edited several short films and co-written a script for Showtime with actor/writer Steven Kampmann (Newhart, Stealing Home, Analyze That).  He is a veteran of three Cannes Film Festivals (as a representative for Gotham and, later, for Cashill Films), has lectured to NYU graduate classes on story structure and independent film and holds a degree in Film History and Production from Middlebury College.

He is currently developing a script with Jane Startz Productions in New York City and in post-production on his low-budget horror-thriller, Oral Fixation.