Topic: Todd Phillips

Todd Phillips (born December 20, 1970) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for directing the comedy films Road Trip, Old School, The Hangover, and Due Date.

Phillips was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended New York University Film School, but dropped out in order to focus on completing his first film, the feature-length documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, about the life and death of punk rocker GG Allin. Around this time, he worked in Stripper Pole at an all-night video store that specialized in explicit material and hard to find films. He also appeared as one of the drivers in the first seasons of Taxicab Confessions on HBO. In a NY Times profile, Phillips claims to have gotten in trouble for shoplifting as a young man.

His first film was the feature-length documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, about the life and death of punk rocker GG Allin. Phillips made the film while a junior at NYU and it went on to become one of the biggest grossing student films at the time, even getting a limited theatrical release. Phillips followed up Junkies with Frat House, a documentary about college fraternities that he produced and directed with then-partner, Andrew Gurland. Frat House premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and would win the Grand Jury Prize for documentary features. It was produced by HBO, but never aired on its channel because many of the film's participants were paid to re-enact their activities.