Hank Nelken

Hank was born in Greenville, Mississippi and went to high school in Dallas, Texas. His interest in filmmaking was piqued at an early age by the local theater productions his parents starred in and by sixth grade, he was shooting and editing his own video productions starring any neighborhood kid who would work for cold cuts. In seventh grade, he started a video business shooting weddings and Bar Mitzvahs to pay for the equipment he needed to make his increasingly complex productions, including "Forever Young," a fifteen minute dramatic short about the perils of drunk driving that won Grand Prize in the National PTA Video Contest. His youthful passion for filmmaking culminated in his acceptance to the USC School of Cinema-Television. While at USC, Nelken directed numerous short films including "Lets Do Love," an award-winning social satire set in the future about two people who fall in love, get married and have a baby; but never meet. Upon graduating film school, Nelken wrote and directed "Fifteen Minutes," a short film that premiered at the USC First Look Festival to rave reviews. Afterwards, he partnered with writer Greg DePaul. From 1998 to 2001, Nelken and Depaul wrote a television pilot for Fox, rewrote two studio features, and sold four original screenplays including "Saving Silverman," which was released in 2001. Afterwards, Nelken and DePaul parted ways amicably and Nelken wrote "Mama's Boy," a spec screenplay that was purchased in 2003 by Warner Brothers. Simultaneously, Warners gave him a blind deal and Revolution Studios bought his pitch for a remake of the classic Cary Grant comedy "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Steve Carr attached to direct. Mama's Boy was produced in 2007 by Warner Independent Pictures and stars Jon Heder, Diane Keaton, Jeff Daniels, Anna Faris and Eli Wallach. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" got a last minute makeover and became "Are We Done Yet?" starring Ice Cube, a sequel to the hit comedy "Are We There Yet?" In 2010, Hank directed a short film starring Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) for Funny or Die that opened the Hollyshorts Film Festival. Currently in 2012, Nelken is packaging his spec screenplay "We Love You Guys" with RCR Pictures producing, out to cast on a remake of "Outlaw Blues" for Warner Bros. with Donald Petrie directing.