 james richard kelly (born march 28, 1975) is an american film director and writer, known for writing and directing the cult classic donnie darko in 2001. ==early life== kelly was born james richard kelly in newport news, virginia, the son of lane kelly and ennis kelly. he grew up in midlothian, virginia where he attended midlothian high school and graduated in 1993. when he was a child, his father worked for nasa on the mars viking lander program. he won a scholarship to the university of southern california to study at the usc school of cinema-television where he was a member of the phi delta theta fraternity. he made two short films at usc, the goodbye place and visceral matter, before graduating in 1997.notable alumni, usc school of cinematic arts. ==film career== donnie darko was given a budget of $4.5&nbsp;million. this was his first feature and was nominated for 21 small awards, winning 11 of them, including a nomination for a saturn award. the film later ended up #2 on empire magazine's list of 50 greatest independent films of all time, behind quentin tarantino's reservoir dogs.the 50 greatest independent films, empire online he has written numerous scripts that have not been produced, most famous of which are the adaptations of kurt vonnegut's cat's cradle and louis sachar's holes. the latter screenplay is available as a pdf on an unofficial richard kelly fansite,richard-kelly.net and kelly hopes that he will one day secure the rights to the former, so that fans may read that one as well. his fourth film, and second feature, southland tales, a rough cut of which screened in competition at the 2006 cannes film festival, was released november 16, 2007 and stars dwayne johnson, sarah michelle gellar, seann william scott, kevin smith and [[m
1975_births American_film_directors American_film_producers American_screenwriters Film_directors_from_Virginia Living_people People_from_Richmond,_Virginia University_of_Southern_California_alumni