Scott Z. Burns
Film director, producer, and screenwriter, including “Contagion” and “An Inconvenient Truth”

Scott Z. Burns is a screenwriter, director, producer and playwright whose interest in pandemics led to writing the film “Contagion,” in consultation with Pandefense members. Mr. Burns began his career in advertising and went on to produce the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” as well as “An Inconvenient Sequel” and “Sea of Shadows.” His writing credits include “The Bourne Ultimatum” (director, Paul Greengrass), as well as “The Informant!” “Contagion,” and “The Laundromat” (director, Steven Soderbergh). As a director, Mr. Burns’ credits include “PU-239” starring Oscar Isaac and Paddy Considine and the Golden Globe-nominated film “The Report” starring Adam Driver, Annette Bening and Jon Hamm, which received the Cinema for Peace Award for Best Political Film of 2019. Mr. Burns also directed the digital series “The View from Here,” a collection of documentary shorts on the terminally ill. On stage, his play “the Library,” which deals with a high school shooting, was produced at The Public Theater and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New American Play. Mr. Burns is an advisor at the Sundance Institute and a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Leadership Committee. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a degree in English literature.

Expertise: Communications, media, and design