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David Dobkin

"Wedding Crashers" was the surprise comedy hit of the summer of 2005, establishing David Dobkin as a hot director in the genre. While Dobkin went on to helm a number of comedies, his career would take a more serious turn with "The Judge" (2014), a drama starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall as an estranged father and son. Born June 23, 1969 in Washington, DC, Dobkin went to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Dobkin got an early start in the business working on the horror film "The Believers" (1987), which was directed by John Schlesinger. While he was attending the Tisch School of the Arts in Film & Television at New York University, Dobkin also worked in the development department of Warner Brothers. Like many up and coming filmmakers, Dobkin's thesis film, "57th Street Serenade" (1992) got him noticed, winning a 1992 C.I.N.E. Eagle Award and a Gold award at the Edinburgh Festival. Dobkin graduated from Tisch in 1992, and he directed commercials for ESPN, Heineken, and PlayStation, among other clients, as well as videos for Tupac Shakur, Blues Traveler, Elton John, and other artists. Dobkin finally got a major feature made in 1998 with "Clay Pigeons," a dark comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix that was produced by Hollywood heavyweights Ridley and Tony Scott. Dobkin followed that up with the hit martial arts Western comedy "Shanghai Knights" (2003), which starred Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. "Wedding Crashers," which starred Vaughn and Wilson, followed in 2005; it was even more wildly popular with audiences (as well as many critics), earning $285 million at the box office world-wide. As a director, Dobkin's next credits included the holiday comedy "Fred Claus" (2007), "The Change-Up" (2011), and "The Judge" (2014), a serious drama with a star-heavy cast, which was a major change in direction. Dobkin also had producer credits on the Billy Bob Thornton comedy "Mr. Woodcock" (2007), the epic fantasy "Jack the Giant Slayer" (2013), and the reboot of "Vacation" (2015) written by "Horrible Bosses" (2011) scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein.