Credits

DIRECTOR/WRITER  Robert Siegal
PRODUCERS  Jean Kouremetis, Elan Bogarin

Biography

Robert Siegel (director/writer)

Robert Siegel makes his directorial debut with Big Fan.  A native of Merrick, Long Island, Siegel graduated from the University of Michigan in 1993 with a B.A. in history and no thoughts of becoming a filmmaker.  In 1994, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin to be with his then-girlfriend, who was pursuing a PhD at the University of Wisconsin.  It was in Madison in the fall of 1994 that Siegel came across an obscure local humor publication called The Onion.  He immediately began writing for the paper, rising to editor-in-chief by the summer of 1996.  Over the next eight years, Siegel presided over The Onion’s rise to national prominence, spearheading its transition to the Internet and overseeing the publication of several Onion-branded books, Our Dumb Century, a New York Times number-one bestseller and winner of the 1999 Thurber Prize For American Humor.

In 2001, Siegel and the editorial staff of The Onion relocated from Madison to New York City.  In 2003, Siegel, ready for a new challenge, left The Onion to pursue a career in screenwriting.  Over the next four years, he worked on numerous studio projects, including the Judd Apatow-produced The Recruiter at Universal and Warner Brothers' Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, with Johnny Depp attached to star. In 2003, Siegel met with director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), who was interested in a script Siegel wrote called Paul Aufiero (later retitled Big Fan).  Though Aronofsky did not wind up directing the script, he contacted Siegel a short time later to ask if he was interested in writing a film set in the world of professional wrestling.  Siegel accepted the offer, which eventually resulted in the critically acclaimed The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei.  The Fox Searchlight film earned Academy Award Nominations, won the Golden Lion statue at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, and was the closing night selection at the New York Film Festival.

Siegel lives near Union Square in New York City with his wife and son.

Jean Kouremetis (producer)

Jean Kouremetis is a New York resident who recently left the corporate world, where she held management positions in private equity and insurance brokerage firms.  She now applies her business background as a producer at her own creative/post-production firm, The Happy Dagger, and as a production manager at the music house Expansion Team.

Elan Bogarin (producer)

Elan Bogarin is a New York City-based filmmaker and graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.  Her most recent projects include Invisible Murals (in post-production), a documentary about the origin myths of oil from a Venezuelan oil boomtown; God's House, a feature-length documentary about Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust for JWM Productions; and a short documentary for the National Gallery of Art for Oscar-winning director Aviva Slesin.  In 2008, she co-founded The Wassaic Project, an annual multidisciplinary arts festival in historic
Wassaic, NY.  In addition, Bogarin has exhibited her photographic work at Rhonda Schaller Gallery in New York's Chelsea art district.