Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Niels Mueller is an award winning writer and director whose films have premiered at the most prestigious film festivals in the world and earned millions at the box office. Tadpole (Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Stanford), which Niels co-wrote, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The protagonist of his screenplay was described in by Stephen Holden of The New York Times as "about as close to a contemporary descendant of J.D.Salinger's beloved preppie misfit, Holden Caufield, as has ever been brought to the screen."The Assassination of Richard Nixon (Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Don Cheadle), which Niels co-wrote and directed, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, its North American premiere at The Toronto International Film Festival, and was sought by film festivals and distributors around the world. David Denby of the New Yorker wrote in his review of the film, "The movie...comes within hailing distance of such emblematic works of American disillusion as Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day."Niels was also the final production draft writer of studio box office hits 13 going on 30 (Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo) and Letters to Juliet (Vanessa Redgrave, Amanda Seyfried) and is an accomplished show-creator, writer and producer of network television, including the CBS series, The Defenders, (Jim Belushi, Jerry O'Connell). Niels also received the German Federal Film Fund's highest grant award for his original screenplay, A Letter For Matschek. Show less «