Keith Strausbaugh

Keith Strausbaugh and Anthony Guidubaldi write, direct, and edit under the banner of Hot Tub Mimosas, a loveless marriage of comedy filmmaking. They both hold MFAs in Screenwriting from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Keith also holds an MA in English from Old Dominion University. In fact, he's holding it right now to taunt the lesser-educated Anthony. They've twice been finalists in Austin Film Festival's screenwriting competition and twice had the top-ranked comedy screenplay on The Black List website. They've also twice loudly ranted about the worthlessness of these screenwriting contests. In 2015, Pangaea Pictures hired Keith and Anthony to write a Chinese version of The Hangover, directed by Andrzej Sekula (DP for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) with a 1-2m budget and starring Billy Zane. This proved slightly troublesome as Keith and Anthony don't speak Chinese. However, the producers paid in cash-stuffed envelopes which helped quell the writers' concerns. Hot Tub Mimosas was later commissioned to adapt American Coin: A True Story of Betrayal, Gambling, and Murder in Las Vegas by the widow of Frank Romano, one of the businessmen "allegedly" responsible for the largest slot machine cheating scandal in the 1980s (and a murder). Once again, the illicit cash allayed the filmmakers' reservations. In 2017, Keith and Anthony won Stage 32's Comedy Screenplay Contest and met with a handful of production companies. One of these firms was kind enough to offer Hot Tub Mimosas an opportunity to write them a script... for free. At least the crooks paid cash. Tired of writing screenplays for organized crime syndicates (Hollywood included), Keith and Anthony have since focused on directing their own projects, beginning with Marathon. It's much safer.