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Born: February 10, 1961 Omaha, Nebraska
Greek American Director/Screenwriter

Constantine Alexander Payne (Papadopoulos) is a Golden Globe winner Greek-American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.

Payne, a Greek American, was born in Omaha, Nebraska to parents who were restaurant owners. He was the youngest of three sons and grew up in the same neighborhood as billionaire Warren Buffett. Payne attended Creighton Preparatory School high school and later Stanford University, where he double majored in Spanish and History. As a part of his Spanish degree, he studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Payne got his MFA in 1990 from the UCLA Film School.

Payne wrote and directed his first full-length film Citizen Ruth in 1995. His film Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, which takes aim at politics and education in America, attracted attention when New Yorker film critic David Denby named it the best film of 1999.

Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election. In 2000 he did an uncredited polish-up of the screenplay for the comedy hit Meet The Parents. In 2001 Payne wrote a draft of Jurassic Park III. In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt, which also won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. To the surprise of many who kept track of Hollywood news, Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor were not nominated for an Oscar for the About Schmidt screenplay.

He won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Screenplay for Sideways while the film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In total, Sideways received five Academy Award Nominations.

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