As a screenwriter, his feature film Girl is distributed by Sony and has been seen internationally. He has been commissioned by such studios as Touchstone/Disney, MGM, Ivan Reitman's Montecito Pictures, USA Networks, Edward R. Pressman Film Corp, and Addis-Wechsler & Assoc. (now Industry Entertainment) to write feature screenplays. He is the author of original screenplays such as The Last Crash and Reflections on a Teenage Anti-Christ featured in a New York Times article about home offices. Some of his work centers on teen subcultures such as heavy-metal fans, Florida surfer teens, teen groupies, and female football players, particularly in relation to social decay. He is also interested in horror, both psychological and physical. As a sound designer, he has designed the sound for interactive computer environments andvideo installations which have been exhibited internationally. In 2003, he was nominated for a Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild Golden Reel Award for his sound design for Dolly. In 2008, he was appointed as a Northwestern University Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. In 2009, he co-curated The Horror Show at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs in New York City which explored horror in film, video, installation, photography, sculpture and painting and which was featured as a The Village Voice "Voice Choice for Art" and on their blog, and which was accompanied by a 32-page catalog. He is a graduate of Yale (1985, BA, magna cum laude) and USC School of Cinematic Arts/School of Cinema-Television (1988, MFA). He sometimes works with his spouse, the media artist Debra Kahn Tolchinsky.