Justin Kuritzkes

Kuritzkes was born and raised in Los Angeles, California to a Jewish family.^[5][6] His father is a gastroenterologist and his mother practiced real estate law.^[7]

In 2008, Kuritzkes graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.^[8]

Kuritzkes attended Brown University where he studied philosophy and literary arts. At Brown, Kuritzkes studied with playwrights Gregory Moss, Lisa D'Amour, and Erik Ehn, participated in Production Workshop,^[9] and was involved in local protests affiliated with the Occupy movement.^[6][10] Kuritzkes graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2012.^[11]

Kuritzkes's one-act play An Autobiography of My Brother, first written for the 2008 Harvard-Westlake Playwrights Festival, was among the works honored at the 2010 Young Playwrights Competition.^[8]

Beginning during his time at Brown University, Kuritzkes uploaded videos recorded using the Photo Booth application to YouTube.^[2] The most famous of these videos, "Potion Seller", went viral online and inspired parodies in publications including The New Yorker.^[12]

Kuritzkes received a MacDowell Fellowship in both 2012 and 2016.^[6] In 2016, his play The Sensuality Party toured the university circuit of New York state.^[13][14] He released the novel Famous People in 2019.^[15][16]

In 2021, Kuritzkes's spec script Challengers was featured on the annual edition of The Black List, which was then adapted into a feature film directed by Luca Guadagnino.^[17] Ahead of the film's release, he was named one of the top 10 screenwriters to watch in 2023 by Variety.^[18] He also adapted William S. Burroughs' 1985 novel Queer for a film directed by Guadagnino.^[19]

In April 2024, Variety reported that Kuritzkes would write the screen adaptation of the Don Winslow novel City on Fire, set to star Austin Butler.^[20]

In June 2024 he was announced to be developing an untitled film with Jude Law, reportedly inspired by the works of Mike Nichols.^[21]

In November 2024, it was announced he had written a feature film based on the DC character Sgt. Rock, which would reunite him with Guadagnino and Daniel Craig, whom he had previously worked with on Queer.^[22] However, the film was scrapped in 2025.^[23]

In June 2026, it was revealed that Kuritzkes had provided rewrites for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: Brand New Day, sharing a co-writing credit with Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.^[24]

Kuritzkes has been married to filmmaker and playwright Celine Song since June 12, 2016.^[25] They live together in New York City. Song gained recognition for her 2023 film Past Lives, which earned her two Oscar nominations.^[26][27]

• Famous People: a novel (2019). New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-1-250-30902-0