Tom Shadyac was born in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1958. He gained notoriety as the youngest joke-writer ever to work for the famous comedian Bob Hope. After that he completed his masters in Film from UCLA in 1989 and his career as a filmmaker and screenwriter started. He made several famous comedies in the 1990s and early 2000s such as Ace Ventura - Pet Detective (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Liar Liar (1997), Patch Adams (1998) and Bruce Almighty (2003).