Neil LaBute

Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, playwright and actor. He is best-known for a play that he wrote and later turned into a film, In the Company of Men (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He wrote and directed the films Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Possession (2002) (based on the A.S. Byatt novel), The Shape of Things (2003) (based on his play of the same name), The Wicker Man (2006), Some Velvet Morning (2013), and Dirty Weekend (2015). He directed the films Nurse Betty (2000), Lakeview Terrace (2008), and Death at a Funeral (2010). LaBute created the TV series Billy & Billie, writing and directing all of the episodes and is also creator of Van Helsing. He also directed several episodes for shows such as Hell on Wheels and Billions. 2Early life LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English, and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his film