Eric Chaikin (Producer, Co-Director)
Chaikin is a producer, actor, and published authority in the field of “recreational linguistics” (wordplay) who appears as a character in the book Word Freak. Formerly a software executive at a major Wall Street technology firm, he is an expert tournament player himself, with first-hand knowledge of the characters, their lifestyles, rivalries, rituals, and reverence for the game.
Director Statement
Fimmakers Profile - Sundance

Julian Petrillo (Co-Director)
Petrillo is an experienced film and TV director with a passion for games. He was First Assistant Director on such feature films as Boiler Room, American Buffalo, and the 2002 Sundance Audience Award winner Real Women Have Curves. He has directed for Comedy Central (Upright Citizens’ Brigade) and American Movie Classics (Remember WENN).
Fimmakers Profile - Sundance

Udy Epstein (Executive Producer, Seventh Art Releasing)
Epstein runs an independent production, distribution and foreign sales company noted for award-winning documentaries. Releases include six Academy Award ® -nominated films and the 1997 Oscar® winner The Long Way Home along with other notable films such as American Pimp, Radiohead: Meeting People is Easy, Better Living Through Circuitry and Ben Harper: Pleasure and Pain. Epstein executive produced Creature (with Sheila Nevins) and Rudyland for Cinemax/HBO. In post-production: No Excuses, about the 2002 U.S. Paraplegic Olympic ski team and "Missing, Presumed Dead" (about POWs in the Korean war).

Vivian Schiller (Executive Producer, Discovery Times Channel)
Vivian Schiller, general manager and senior vice president of Discovery Times Channel, manages all programming and operational aspects of the network. A 14-year veteran of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., Schiller most recently served as senior vice president, CNN Productions, leading the CNN Newsgroup¹s long-form programming efforts. Among her key accomplishments are the development and launch of two weekly series People in the News and CNN Presents -- which has received numerous awards, including a Peabody Award, two Alfred I. duPont Awards, a Polk Award and four Emmy Awards in 2002 alone.