Aaron Seltzer

Aaron Seltzer could have followed in his family's shoe business if fate had not intervened. While attending college at the University of Santa Barbara, he met his writing partner Jason Friedberg, and they went on to launch a number of comedy spoofs, including the immensely popular and profitable "Scary Movie" series. Born on January 12, 1974 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Seltzer came from a family of shoe salesmen, and his future partner in comedy, Jason Friedberg, had family in the movie business, namely his father, Rick Friedberg, a director and producer. But neither of the friends initially wanted to go into the entertainment biz until their last year at the University of California Santa Barbara, where they were inspired by a film class on the work of Martin Scorsese. Seltzer and Friedberg wrote screenplays at night while working day gigs to pay for their schooling, and Friedberg's father liked a script they wrote, the broad espionage spoof "Spy Hard." Leslie Nielsen, whom Rick Friedberg had previously worked with, liked it as well, and it became a film in 1996. The team kept writing, and one spoof they wrote, "Scream If You Know What I Did Last Summer," eventually turned into "Scary Movie" (2000), the first film in what quickly became a vastly profitable comedy franchise. After growing tired of their projects languishing in development, the Seltzer / Friedberg team decided to direct their own films, with the help of their long time producer Peter Safran. Once they got into the director's chair, the comedies came at a fast pace, including "Date Movie" (2006), "Epic Movie" (2007), "Meet the Spartans" (2007), "Vampires Suck" (2010), "Best Night Ever" (2010), "Hunger Games" spoof "The Starving Games" (2013), and "Fast and Furious" parody "Superfast" (2014).