Tom Shadyac

Thomas Peter Shadyac (born December 11, 1958) is an American film director, producer, and writer. The youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, Shadyac is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Liar Liar (1997), Patch Adams (1998), and Bruce Almighty (2003). In 2010, Shadyac retired from the comedy genre and wrote, directed, and narrated his own documentary film I Am, that explores his abandonment of a materialistic lifestyle following his involvement in a bicycle accident three years earlier.

Shadyac is a former professor of communication at Pepperdine University's Seaver College. In 2011, he was a participant in the Conference on World Affairs. In 2015, Shadyac began teaching film at the University of Colorado Boulder, beginning with that year's Spring semester. Shadyac teaches film at the University of Memphis.