Adam Watstein was born in Queens in 1970, and he graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1994.  Watstein worked his way through NYU by waiting tables at Barney Greengrass, a legendary deli on New York ’s Upper West Side.  His student thesis film, Acme Rooms and Sweet Marjorie Russell, won numerous awards.

Jennifer H. Lyne was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1970, daughter of painter Ann Lyne and inventor Robert Lyne. In 1994, Lyne moved to New York City from Virginia where she was training horses.  In NYC, she location scouted on over fourteen feature films, and has worked with entertainment industry veterans Barry Diller, Scott Rudin, Ted Hope, Christine Vachon, Todd Solondz, Sydney Pollack, and James Mangold, among others.

In 1998, Watstein and Lyne started shooting OFF THE HOOK in the projects of the South Bronx. After premiering at the Urbanworld Film Festival and screening in the Fipresci Competition at the Chicago International Film Festival, OFF THE HOOK garnered positive reviews during its theatrical release from The Village Voice, the NY Daily News, Variety, the Chicago Reader, and Film Threat, among others. Wellspring Media, which distributes Tarnation, Brown Bunny, Russian Ark, and Todd Solondz’s latest film, Palindromes, handles the distribution for OFF THE HOOK. Lyne and Watstein are negotiating cable TV rights for OFF THE HOOK as of August, 2005, and expect to announce a deal before the fall.

Lyne and Watstein shot another feature, an UNTITLED THRILLER, in June of 2005.  The shoot lasted 25 hours straight, with six cameras shooting four actors. Please click here to read about the new project.