Jason Reitman makes his feature film directorial debut with "Thank You for Smoking". The accomplished director of such award-winning shorts as "In God We Trust" and "Gulp", which screened in more than 100 film festivals worldwide, he previously directed television commercials and received honors from the Cannes commercial awards, the Addys, as well as the highly coveted One Show. Reitman lives in Los Angeles. Christopher Buckley is editor of "Forbes FYI" magazine and the author of eleven books, many of them national bestsellers, including "Thank You for Smoking". He is the winner of the distinguished ninth annual Thurber Prize for American Humor. Buckley lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children and dog, Duck.

George Clooney won the Special Achievement in Film award from the National Board of Review for his directorial debut, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". His acting credits include the blockbuster hits "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Eleven", the critically acclaimed "Three Kings", the Oscar(R)-nominated "Out of Sight" and the Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", for which he won the Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) Golden Globe.
Grant Heslov served as the director and producer of the critically acclaimed series "Unscripted", and co-executive producer of "K Street", both for HBO. In his long career as an actor, he has had roles in the TV shows "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "The X-Files", and the feature films "The Scorpion King, Enemy of the State, Dante's Peak, The Birdcage, Congo" and "True Lies".