Biography
Jim Taylor is an American screenwriter and producer. He has frequently collaborated with director Alexander Payne, co-writing the screenplays for Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004) and Downsizing (2017). He also contributed to the screenplay for Jurassic Park III (2001) and wrote Juliet, Naked (2018) with Tamara Jenkins and Evgenia Peretz.
Taylor was born in 1962 in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from Pomona College in 1984 and received an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1996. He began working in the film industry in the late 1980s, including at Cannon Films, before meeting Payne in Los Angeles.
Taylor and Payne share an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways (2004), along with Golden Globe wins and other nominations for their joint work. Taylor has also produced films including The Descendants (2011). He has been married to screenwriter and director Tamara Jenkins since 2002.
