Noam Murro

Though he eventually built a trademark reputation as a director of offbeat feature films, Noam Murro undertook a most circuitous route into Hollywood. Born in Israel, Murro originally trained as an architect in his boyhood town of Jerusalem, NY, then entered the advertising industry, with a lengthy tenure in the creative department of Gotham's Goldsmith/Jeffrey Agency. During that stint, he became known for his deft and original hand at directing promotional films via his own production banner, Biscuit Films (co-run with Shawn Lacy Tessaro); their clients included such brands as Saturn, E*Trade, and FreeAgent.com. In time, Murro and Tessaro migrated to the advertising-based production house Stiefel & Co., in Southern California, then set up a new production banner for themselves. In the years to follow, talk swirled of Murro's pending feature activity -- including, at one point, his plans to directThe Ring Twofor DreamWorks (an assignment eventually handled byHideo Nakata, the director of the original Japanese film) and the black comedy All Families Are Psychotic; however, Murro eventually took his first high-profile feature bow with the 2007 comedySmart People. The film starsThomas Haden Church,Dennis Quaid, andSarah Jessica Parker, and concerns a professor (Quaid) who grapples with a new romance and the doings of a shady brother.