Writer-director Roger Kumble got his start as a playwright with 1993's acclaimed "Pay or Play" and made his film directorial debut with "Cruel Intentions" (1999), a modern upscale teen adaptation of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". Fascinated by and fluent in the dog-eat-dog world of the socially elite, Kumble was best when writing searing exposes of the manipulative duplicity of the young privileged class, using this shrewdly upwardly mobile group to somewhat humorously illustrate the dark side of human nature.

As author of the popular Los Angeles plays "Pay or Play" and "d girl" (1997) Kumble