John Gatins (born April 16, 1968) is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He was born in New York City, attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York and pursued a career in acting. After appearing in many lower-budget films, he got some bigger roles in Varsity Blues (1999) and Big Fat Liar (2002). Jeremy Kramer, an employee at Fox that Gatins was close with, paid him $1,000 to write a teen comedy. That sparked his career in screenwriting. His first film that he wrote was Summer Catch (2001). Later on, he got to write some bigger budget films like Coach Carter (2005), Dreamer (2005) and Flight (2012). He would then get nominated at the Academy Awards for best original screenplay for the movie Flight.