<p>Lauren Wolkstein was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her B.A. in computer science at Duke University, where she also won the Duke Filmmaker Award. She lived in Los Angeles for a year, assisting film producer Chris Hanley at Muse. Her first award-winning short, Cigarette Candy, was screened at numerous film festivals. In addition to developing the feature version of Cigarette Candy, she is also adapting David Foster Wallace’s short story “Little Expressionless Animals” into a feature that is in development with Plum Pictures producer Galt Niederhoffer. Lauren graduated from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in May 2010 with an M.F.A. in Film Directing.</p>