Biography

Sam was born in Chicago. After surviving childhood with his Sicilian\Jewish family, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin and then attended Columbia College Film School. Shortly after, Sam began shooting news for NBC and CNN in Chicago.

Auster has written and directed thee feature films. "The Return of Joe Rich"(2013) is a pitch-black comedy about a young man seeking redemption by joining the Mafia. "The Rape of Eden", is a futuristic action adventure, released by West Side Studios. His first feature, "Screen Test", a teen sex comedy, was theatrically released by CineTel and shipped a record number of units.

Sam recently directed a pilot for the Dove Soap "Real Beauty" documentary campaign, and has written and shot promos for ABC-TV's prime time line-up.

Auster has won multiple Echo awards for his commercial work. He recently directed Betty White fighting Zombies for an AARP web campaign. Other recent national spots include "Calendar" a national cable, animated spot for Humana and a real-people web spot, "We Are AARP Foundation". Auster has shot and directed numerous other commercials for companies such as Burger King, Chevy Trucks, Skechers USA, LowerMyBills.com, and Carbite Golf. He also directed "Stick Figure", an animated spot for FreeCreditReport.com, which aired during the 2003 Super Bowl.

On the literary side, Auster has written screenplays for Ed Asner's Quince Productions (a mock-umentary about the life of "legendary" producer Buddy Rose), Edge Films and Mustang Pictures. Another of Sam's screenplays, "Birthday", written with "JOE RICH" DP Lance Catania, is in pre-production.

Sam wrote and directed sketch comedy at the Robert Hartung Theater in Hollywood and at the Up Front Comedy Club in Santa Monica.

- IMDb mini biography by: Sam Auster