Scott Z. Burns is a writer, director and producer. His credits include: the original screenplay for Side Effects, a psychological thriller starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Channing Tatum—which received the coveted Golden Tomato for 2013– directed by Steven Soderbergh (produced by Burns, Greg Jacobs and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura), the original screenplay for Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Jude Law, the screen adaptation of Soderbergh’s The Informant!, also starring Damon, co-writer of the Academy Award-winning Bourne Ultimatum, directed by Paul Greengrass, producer of An Inconvenient Truth, the Academy Award-winning documentary, for which he received the Humanitas Prize and the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America.

He also wrote and directed HBO Films’ critically acclaimed PU-239, starring Paddy Considine and Oscar Isaac. Burns’ stage play The Library, appeared at The Public Theater in New York City in 2014 starring Chloe Grace Moretz and directed by Soderbergh– it was nominated by the Outer Critics Circle for Best New American Play.

Burns began his career in advertising after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota. He was part of the creative team responsible for the original “Got Milk?” campaign and his advertising work has been recognized by the Clio Awards, the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. Burns has written for GQ Magazine, Time, Condé Nast Traveler, Interview and The Huffington Post.