Alex Epstein (born January 26, 1963) is a dual citizen American Canadian writer, film producer, director, and educator.

Career

Alex Epstein began his writing career as an author of short stories for literary magazines. In Hollywood, he worked as a development executive for independent films, including with his own and Angelique Gulermovich Epstein's company Muse of Fire, and as a vice-president of Blue Rider Pictures. His first film writing credit was for 1994's ''Warriors''. In Montreal, he co-created and co-wrote the comedy television series ''

Naked Josh ''Naked Josh'' is a Canadian comedy television series, which aired on Showcase from 2004 to 2006. It was created and written by Alex Epstein and Laura Kosterski. The show starred David Julian Hirsh as Josh Gould, a university professor in Mon ...

'' and co-wrote the buddy cop crime film ''

Bon Cop, Bad Cop ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' is a 2006 Canadian dark comedy-thriller buddy cop film about two police officers – one Ontarian and one Québécois – who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The t ...

''. He was head writer (executive story editor) for the second half of the sci-fi series ''

Charlie Jade ''Charlie Jade'' is a science fiction television series filmed mainly in Cape Town, South Africa. It stars Jeffrey Pierce in the title role, as a detective from a parallel universe who finds himself trapped in our universe. This is a Canadian and ...

'' with writer credit on three episodes. He has also written and directed several short films, and wrote young adult historical fantasy novel ''The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan le Fay''. Epstein has worked in the video game industry as the story and voice director of '' Contrast'' by

Compulsion Games Compulsion Games Inc. is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Montreal. Established in 2009 by ex-Arkane Studios developer Guillaume Provost, the studio developed the 2013 puzzle-platform game '' Contrast'' ...

. For Spearhead Games' '' Stories: The Path of Destinies'', he was brought in to assist with the branching storylines and to add humor. He returned to work for Compulsion Games as the narrative director of ''

We Happy Few ''We Happy Few'' is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Compulsion Games and published by Gearbox Publishing. In 2016, an early access version was released for Microsoft Windows, with the full game seeing wide release f ...

''.

Selected writing credits

* ''

Vampire High ''Vampire High'' is a Canadian TV series that originally aired from 2001 to 2002. The show centered on a group of young vampires subjected to a daring experiment by the "Elders": taken in by a boarding school that also housed mortal teenagers, wit ...

'' (2001) (TV series) * '' Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension'' (2002) (TV series) *''

15/Love ''15/Love'' is a Canadian television series that revolved around the lives of aspiring young tennis players at the Cascadia Tennis Academy. The show was created by Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer. ''15/Love'' premiered on the television cha ...

'' (2004-2005) (TV series) *''

'' (2004-2006) (TV series) *''

'' (2005) (TV series) *''

'' (2006) (film) *'' Contrast'' (2013) (video game) *'' Stories: The Path of Destinies'' (2016) (video game) *''

'' (2018) (video game)

Awards

He was part of the writing team along with

Patrick Huard Patrick Huard (born January 2, 1969) is a Quebec-born Canadian actor, writer and comedian. Career Patrick Huard broke into the Quebec show business scene in 1989 as a comedian, actor and television personality. A hard-working multifaceted talen ...

, Leila Bason and

Kevin Tierney Kevin Tierney (August 27, 1950 – May 12, 2018) was a Canadian film producer from Montreal who co-wrote and produced the most popular Canadian film of all time at the domestic box office, ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'', for which he earned a Golden Ree ...

that was nominated for the

Prix Iris The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec.Canadian Comedy Award The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000. T ...

(Best Writing) for ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' in 2007. ''Naked Josh'' which he co-wrote with Laura Kosterski and the short film ''Role Play'' which he co-wrote with Lisa Hunter, have been nominated for the

WGC Screenwriting Awards The WGC Screenwriting Awards (previously Canadian Screenwriting Awards) are administered by the Writers Guild of Canada, and are awarded to the best script for a feature film, television or radio project produced within the Guild's jurisdiction, ...

in 2005, 2006, and 2014. ''The Circle Cast'' was shortlisted for the

Quebec Writers' Federation Awards The Quebec Writers' Federation Awards are a series of Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the Quebec Writers' Federation to the best works of literature in English by writers from Quebec. They were known from 1988 to 1998 as the QSPEL ...

(QWF Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature) in 2011.

Education

In addition, Epstein is also a screenwriting teacher. ''Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made'', published in 2002, is a screenwriting manual for feature films, derived from his career in development. In 2006, he wrote ''Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box'', focusing on his experiences in television and guiding writers in creating series and pilots. He also has a tie-in blog, "Complications Ensue".

Personal life

Raised in New York, Epstein graduated from the

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1985 in Computer Science and English and has lived in France for a year. Afterwards he graduated from the

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

and has worked in Los Angeles for a decade, before eventually moving to Montreal, Canada.

References

External links

Official website
*
Alex Epstein
on

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Alex 1963 births 20th-century male writers 21st-century American male writers Canadian people of American descent American male novelists American male screenwriters American education writers American short story writers American television writers American television producers Canadian education writers Canadian male novelists Canadian male screenwriters Canadian television writers Canadian television producers Canadian male non-fiction writers Jewish American novelists Jewish American screenwriters Jewish American short story writers Living people American male television writers Novelists from New York (state) Poets from New York (state) Screenwriting instructors University of California, Los Angeles alumni Video game writers American voice directors Writers from Montreal Writers from New York City Writers of books about writing fiction Yale University alumni 21st-century American essayists American male non-fiction writers Screenwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American poets 21st-century American screenwriters Canadian Comedy Award winners 21st-century American Jews