Andy Fickman

Bio: Film director Andy Fickman arrived in his chosen field by virtue of his career as a musical theater helmer. A native of Midland, TX, who was raised in a Jewish family by a homemaker mother and a geologist father, Fickman found his life's calling by virtue of his father, who conveyed his inveterate passion for the stage to young Andy. He later attended Texas Tech as… More Bio: Film director Andy Fickman arrived in his chosen field by virtue of his career as a musical theater helmer. A native of Midland, TX, who was raised in a Jewish family by a homemaker mother and a geologist father, Fickman found his life's calling by virtue of his father, who conveyed his inveterate passion for the stage to young Andy. He later attended Texas Tech as a theater major, and thereafter directed a series of immensely popular plays in Southern California; the most successful, Reefer Madness, embodied a musical adaptation of Louis Gasnier's Z-grade 1936 cult film about the "evils" of pot smoking. The show opened at the Hudson Theater in San Bernardino to sellouts and critical raves, secured a prestigious New York opening in late 2000, and won Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and Ovation Awards for its director. Fickman followed it up with The Gift, a more sober stage musical about a reunion of college buddies, and juggled this with a day job as a studio development executive. He moved into direction of features beginning in 2002, with the sex comedy Who's Your Daddy?, then directed a film adaptation of his Reefer play for the Showtime network in 2004, starring Steven Weber, Neve Campbell, and Alan Cumming. Additional projects included the gender-bending teen comedy She's the Man (starring Amanda Bynes, in drag), the family-oriented sports comedy The Game Plan (starring the Rock), and the 2009 Disney remake Race to Witch Mountain. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi