Patrick Stettner is an American film director and writer. His first film, Flux, was released in 1996 as a short, and starred Allison Janney

Allison Janney

Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...

 in an early role. He went on to direct and write the screenplay for The Business of Strangers

The Business of Strangers

The Business of Strangers is a 2001 motion picture that tells the story of an eventful night shared between a middle-aged businesswoman and her young assistant....

in 2001, which earned him a Grand Jury Prize nomination at the Sundance Film Festival of that year and earned lead actress Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its...

 an AFI nomination for Best Female Actress. In 2006, he then wrote and directed The Night Listener

The Night Listener (film)

The Night Listener is a 2006 psychological horror film directed by Patrick Stettner. The screenplay by Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, and Stettner is based on Maupin's 2000 bestselling novel of the same name, which was inspired by actual events in the author's life.-Plot:Gabriel Noone , a...

, an adaptation of Armistead Maupin

Armistead Maupin

Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...

's eponymous semi-autobiographical 2000 novel

The Night Listener (novel)

The Night Listener is a roman à clef by Armistead Maupin. The novel's plot is based on the real life story of Anthony Godby Johnson, the purported author of a book, A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story, that was later revealed to be a hoax.-Plot summary:Gabriel Noone is a gay writer...

, which landed less than stellar reviews from critics. He has not released any films since The Night Listener.

He is an alumnus of Columbia University School of the Arts

Columbia University School of the Arts

The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies...

' Film division.