James C. Strouse

Born in Indiana in 1977, James C. Strouse first had aspirations of being a writer, which led him to attend Columbia University, receiving an MFA for fiction writing. While at Columbia, he wrote "Lonesome Jim" (2005), which starred Casey Affleck and was directed by Steve Buscemi. After the indie success of "Lonesome Jim" at Sundance, Strouse began working on his next screenplay, which he was inspired to direct after working with Buscemi on his previous film. That next project, "Grace Is Gone" (2007), debuted at Sundance two years after "Lonesome Jim." Well-received, "Grace Is Gone" told the story of a father, played by John Cusack, who had to figure out how to tell his children that their mother was killed in Iraq. It won an Audience Award as well as the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance that year. However, "Grace Is Gone" foundered at the box office when it was released nationwide. Strouse's next movie was a little more light-hearted, as he wrote and directed "The Winning Season" (2011), which starred Sam Rockwell as a divorced dad who becomes the coach of a high school girls' varsity basketball team. Following that, Strouse added a writing credit to hit name for the John Krasinski -directed movie "The Hollars" (2015). His next work as a writer and a director was "People, Places, Things" (2015), starring New Zealand comic Jemaine Clement.