An award winning filmmaker and celebrated Irish-American actor, producer, director and writer - James Francis Ginty was discovered as by Kathryn Bigelow while studying at the Juilliard School of Drama, and was cast in her film "K-19: The Widowmaker" alongside Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. He has starred in numerous films and television shows including "Surrogates" (Disney/Touchstone) with Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike, "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight" (HBO Films) directed by Stephen Frears and the popular TV show "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC). His directorial debut - "Created Sleep Transmissions" - won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival in 2022. The film was also invited to premiere at the Moscow International Film Festival, but the invitation was turned down in solidarity with the people and nation of Ukraine. Ginty studied filmmaking at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and graduated in 2025 with the completion of his capstone project - "The Things I Leave Behind" - a short film about a girl and her mother trying to escape a raging wildfire in the middle of the night; a project he produced for friend and classmate Julie Schuldt. He also starred in and produced the 2025 NYU graduate school short film - "Nita" - for his longtime producing partner Fatima Loeliger. In 2025 Ginty wrote, produced and starred in - "The Hangup" - a black comedy directed by his USC classmate Tyler Coon, who pitched Ginty on making the film independently outside of school after a professor at USC shut the film down for budgetary reasons. The film was successfully completed in 2025 by a team made up entirely of the filmmakers' friends.