Tom McCarthy

McCarthy’s most recent film, the independent drama film Spotlight, received widespread acclaim following its release in 2015. The film received six Academy Awards nominations, three Golden Globe Awards nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, and eight Critics’ Choice Movie Awards nominations.

He also co-wrote and directed 2011’s Win Win based on his experiences as a wrestler at New Providence High School.

Additionally, McCarthy co-wrote the film Up (2009) with Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, for which they received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. McCarthy also wrote the film Million Dollar Arm (2014) and served as a director and executive producer for the Netflix television series 13 Reasons Why (2017).

McCarthy’s second feature film was The Visitor, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. For The Visitor, McCarthy won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. McCarthy appeared in the 2009 dramas The Lovely Bones and 2012. In 2010, McCarthy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the animated film Up.

McCarthy directed the first two episodes of 13 Reasons Why, from Anonymous Content and Paramount Television. The show is based on the 2007 New York Times bestselling YA book by Jay Asher.

McCarthy has received critical acclaim for his writing/direction work for the independent films The Station Agent (2003), The Visitor (2007), Win Win (2011), and Spotlight (2015), the last of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, won McCarthy the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.

McCarthy’s directorial debut, The Station Agent, which he also wrote, won the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The film also won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award. The Station Agent also won awards at film festivals ranging from San Sebastian to Stockholm, Mexico City, and Aspen.

McCarthy spent several years doing stand-up comedy and theater in Minneapolis and Chicago before going into television and film. He starred in Flags of Our Fathers as James Bradley and the final season of The Wire as the morally challenged reporter Scott Templeton. He made his Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Noises Off!

McCarthy was raised in New Providence, New Jersey, one of five children of Carol and Eugene F. “Gene” McCarthy; Gene worked in the textile industry. McCarthy was raised Catholic, in a family of Irish descent. McCarthy is a graduate of New Providence High School in New Providence, New Jersey; Boston College, Class of 1988, where he was a member of the improv comedy troupe My Mother’s Fleabag; and the Yale School of Drama, where he studied under Earle R. Gister.

Thomas Joseph McCarthy (born June 7, 1966) is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor who has appeared in several films, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television series such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order etc.