Todd Solondz (; born October 15, 1959) is an American filmmaker and playwright known for his style of dark, socially conscious satire. Solondz's work has received critical acclaim for its commentary on the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia," a reflection of his own background in New Jersey. His work includes Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), Storytelling (2001), Palindromes (2004), Life During Wartime (2009), Dark Horse (2011), and Wiener-Dog (2016). Biography Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey. He wrote several screenplays while working as a delivery boy for the Writers Guild of America. Solondz earned his undergraduate degree in English from Yale and attended New York University's Master of Fine Arts program in film and television, but did not complete a degree. During the early 1990s, Solondz worked as a teacher of English as a second language to Russian immigrants in New York City and described the experience as positive. Solondz is an atheist. In The A.V. Club article "Is There a God?", he answered the question "Well, me, I'm an atheist, so I don't really believe there is. But I suppose I could be proven wrong." Career 1980s Solondz's student short film Schatt's Last Shot was produced in 1985, and was shown at least once in 1986. The title character is a high schooler who wants to get into Stanford University, but his gym teacher hates him. The teacher fails him because he cannot make a shot in basketball. He has no luck with the girl of his dreams, but he wishes he was more like the coach, whom he challenges to a game of one-on-one. In 1989 Solondz wrote and directed Fear, Anxiety & Depression, an episodic comedy about fledgling playwright Ira (played by Solondz) and his frustrating interactions with the opposite sex. The film contains several musical interludes, including three songs written for the film. Stanley Tucci appears in one of his early roles as an old, disliked acquaintance of Ira, who takes up playwriting on a whim and becomes the toast of Off-Broadway. 1990s The frustrations of his first feature led Solondz to swear off further involvement with the industry. More than five years later, an attorney friend urged Solondz to give filmmaking another go, and promised partial finance for any project Solondz came up with. The end result was 1995's Welcome to the Dollhouse, which went on to win the Grand