Jay Cipriani received his BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from West Virginia University, studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and received his MFA in Film Production from The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.Jay began his career in story development and production working with writer/ director Barry Levinson, producers Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, and Palak Patel, and later with writer Ted Griffin.In 2008, he joined HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm assisting the show’s writing team, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, David Mandel and Larry David. He also worked with Berg, Schaffer and Mandel on Paramount Pictures’ The Dictator starring Sacha Baron Cohen, directed by Larry Charles.2009’s A Golden Christmas, ION Television’s first original film, was Jay's first produced screenplay and he has gone on to write nearly a dozen produced films for various networks including Hallmark.In 2015 he won Chicago's Pride Films and Plays Screenwriting Competition where his screenplay SOMEBODY TO LOVE was performed live.Most recently, he completed Carole’s Christmas for OWN, the first original holiday film for the network.Jay has story consulted on various projects throughout his career and was a finalist in various screenwriting competitions, the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship, New Blood, Top 100 Emerging Screenwriters, Top 25 Spotlight Screenwriting Competition and The Tracking Board Top 25 Launch Pad to name a few. His scripts have been top submissions on both the Black List website and Spec Scout. He has completed a novella, a number of essays, short stories and music compositions, and has directed and edited a variety of short films. He continues to write projects for both film and television and currently teaches screenwriting at New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA.