Adam Saunders caught the acting bug early, performing in professional plays from the age of 7. In junior high, he was part of a group that used theater to enlighten students about issues like alcoholism, divorce and AIDS—a mantra of social consciousness that he maintains in his work to this day.
After earning his MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, Saunders endeavored to create roles for himself as a screenwriter. When that proved too isolating, he turned to producing. As Saunders puts it, the task required “nearly a decade of learning business models, working with investors, attending film markets and raising financing.” The effort paid off with such producing credits as About Alex (2014), Shimmer Lake (2017) and When We First Met for Netflix, and the more recent Darby and the Dead (2022) for Hulu—the latter three under his Footprint Features banner.
When he added directing to the equation, Saunders says he “finally felt at peace.”