Jay Cipriani received his BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from West Virginia University, studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and received his MFA in Film Production from The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.  Jay began his career in story development and production working with writer/director Barry Levinson, producers Paula Weinstein, Len Amato, and Palak Patel, and later with writer Ted Griffin.  In 2008, he joined HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm assisting the show’s writing team, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel. In 2011, he worked with Berg, Schaffer and Mandel on Paramount’s The Dictator starring Sacha Baron Cohen, directed by Larry Charles.  2009’s A Golden Christmas, ION Television’s first original film, was Jay’s first produced screenplay and he has since written many more produced screenplays including Hallmark’s Christmas Land (2015), Sleigh Bells Ring (2016), Sharing Christmas (2017), and Carole’s Christmas (2019) and A Christmas for Mary (2020) for OWN. Jay has story consulted on various projects throughout his career as well as being recognized in various screenwriting competitions, the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship, New Blood, Top 100 Emerging Screenwriters, Top 25 Spotlight Screenwriting Competition and The Tracking Board Top 25 Launch Pad to name a few. His scripts have also been top submissions on both the Black List website and Spec Scout. In 2015 he won Chicago's Pride Films and Plays Screenwriting Competition where his screenplay SOMEBODY TO LOVE was performed live. In addition to continuing to write and develop material for future production, he also currently teaches screenwriting at New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA.