About Scott Mactavish:
Scott Mactavish is a filmmaker, author, entrepreneur, and proud father of three boys. His national appearances include Fox News, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, and CBS, and he has been a guest speaker at corporations and universities around the country, including Penn State and the University of Virginia.
Born deep in the Appalachian Mountains, he escaped by joining the US Navy at age 17. He served aboard the USS L.Y. Spear and Submarine Squadron Six and was stationed in California, Cuba, Norfolk and the North Atlantic. He was Co-captain of the Atlantic Military Championship soccer team, and received an Honorable Discharge after four years of active duty and three years reserve duty.
He then enrolled in film school at New York University, where he concentrated in direction and writing. His thesis film, Flowers for Judith, was optioned for broadcast by HBO. Following graduation, he worked days on dozens of big budget Hollywood films and at night honed his writing skills, churning out screenplays and several book treatments which later found homes at major publishing houses.
Scott founded Mactavish Pictures in 2002 and has written, produced and directed eight documentaries since the company’s inception and consulted on a dozen others. He served as Executive Producer of Chagas: A Hidden Affliction, which aired on PBS and in theaters around the world. His film Summer Running, featuring an introduction by Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek, recently screened as a fundraiser for breast cancer research at the historic Paramount Theater. He also produced and directed Ride for Lance, a documentary based on a coast-to-coast motorcycle rally held in honor of a fallen Navy SEAL. His feature-length documentary MURPH: The Protector was short-listed for several Oscars and premiered at #1 on the iTunes documentary charts in the United States and Canada and stayed in the top ten for over six weeks.
He’s the author of the New Dad’s Survival Guide (Little, Brown and Co.,) a perennial favorite in the parenting and humor categories, and co-author of Battle Ready: Memoir of a SEAL Warrior Medic (St. Martin’s Press,) which is now in development as a series by director Joe Carnahan. He’s a contributing writer for Indiewire, Film Threat and Windcheck Sailing Magazine.
He divides his time between New York City and coastal Virginia and coaches youth soccer in his free time. At age 47, he returned to the University of Alabama to complete a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.
