Barry Blaustein

Barry W. Blaustein is the director and producer of the critically acclaimed documentary Beyond the Mat (1999). Proclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best films of the year, Beyond the Mat was also one of 12 finalists for Academy Award consideration in the Best Documentary category, won numerous film festivals throughout the world and garnered a DGA Award nomination for Blaustein. He also directed the documentary Guys ’N Divas: Battle of the High School Musicals (2009), which followed three high schools competing to be invited to the International Thespian Festival.  

In the non-documentary arena, Blaustein directed the feature film Peep World (2010), starring Michael C.  Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Taraji P. Henson, Kate Mara, Ben Schwartz and Lesley Ann Warren, and The Ringer (2005), starring Johnny Knoxville and Katherine Heigl.

Along with his writing partner David Sheffield, Blaustein’s feature writing credits include Coming to America (1988), Boomerang (1992), The Nutty Professor (1996), Nutty Professor: The Klumps (2000) and Coming2America (2021). As head writers and supervising producers on Saturday Night Live, Blaustein and Sheffield also wrote and developed many of Eddie Murphy’s more famous characters including Buckwheat, Velvet Jones, Gumby and Mr. Robinson.  They also co-wrote and produced CBS' What’s Alan Watching?, which won the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Specials award in 1989.