[2] His mother is a human resource manager for the Torrance, California city government and his father was a private lawyer in Los Angeles.
He graduated from Brown University and also has a master's degree in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.
[2] While in college he joined an improv comedy group where he met his future writing partner Phil Hay.
[3] All of his film screenwriting work has been with writing partner Phil Hay.
Their technique for joint screenwriting is to each write separate scenes and then trade them to each other for further rewrites.