Adam Rodgers

At Johns Hopkins, Adam Rodgers serves as a lecturer in the MA in Film and Media program.

In addition to teaching screenwriting, he is a member of the Writers Guild of America who continues to write, direct, and produce for film and television through his production company, 8th Day Pictures. His latest episodic project, the award-winning digital comedy series, “Turf Valley,” is currently streaming on YouTube and Relay. He is also in early-stage pre-production for his second feature film, “Lancaster’s Got Talent!”

Rodgers broke into the movie business in 2001, with the sale of his comedy spec script “Moving Elliot” to Universal – one of just 101 feature screenplays bought by the major studios that year. In the decade that followed, Rodgers and his writing partner sold and optioned pitches and spec scripts (to Universal, Fox, and Sony, among others), developed dozens more with studios and production companies, and were named among the “Top 10 Screenwriters to Watch” by Script magazine. In 2008, they saw their first greenlit project, the television movie “Racing For Time.” Adapted from a Los Angeles Times article profiling a sprint-relay team comprised of incarcerated young women, the film starred Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis and Emmy-winners Tiffany Haddish and Charles S. Dutton (who also directed), and was nominated for several awards.

That same year, he directed “The Response,” a 30-minute short based on transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals, starring Aasif Mandvi, Kate Mulgrew, and Peter Riegert. The film, which NPR called “a brilliant production,” was shortlisted for the 2010 Academy Awards (Best Short Film, Live Action), won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, screened at the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Capitol for members of Congress, and played in festivals worldwide.

In 2014, Adam co-wrote and directed the indie romance “At Middleton,” starring Academy Award nominees Vera Farmiga and Andy Garcia. The film won multiple festival awards, was released theatrically in the U.S. and internationally, was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and debuted in the top 10 (Art House) On Demand releases. In 2016, Adam’s screenplay was selected for inclusion in the permanent Core Collection of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles.

A native of Maryland, Rodger earned a BA at Duke University and an MFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he won a student Emmy Award.