Jim Taylor

Taylor met Payne while working temporary jobs in Los Angeles, eventually moving in with him for financial reasons. While roommates the two wrote short films and started writing Citizen Ruth. After winning money on the game show Wheel of Fortune, Taylor entered Tisch School of the Arts at the age of 30. He and Payne did further rewrites on Citizen Ruth while Taylor was a graduate student; the film got made during his third year there. Taylor received an M.F.A. in Filmmaking from New York University in 1996.

Taylor began working for Cannon Films in 1987. After visiting China on an Avery Foundation grant, Taylor returned to L.A. and spent three years working with Ivan Passer; he also worked for Devon Foster, a director at HBO, as Foster's assistant.

Taylor was born in Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of Bellevue High School and a 1984 graduate of Pomona College, a liberal arts school he attended instead of accepting an offer from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Jim Taylor (born 1963) is an American producer and screenwriter who has often collaborated on projects with Alexander Payne. The two are business partners in the Santa Monica based Ad Hominem Enterprises, and are credited as co-writers of six films released between 1996 and 2007: Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001, with Peter Buchman), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007, with Barry Fanaro and Lew Gallo). His credits as a producer include films such as Cedar Rapids and The Descendants.