Jesse Andrews graduated from Harvard College in 2004 with a degree in History of Art and Architecture. He then spent six years writing two (in retrospect flagrantly unpublishable) novels; working low-paying and frequently demeaning jobs; and playing and singing in several bands, the most successful of which was a comedy duo called, The Young Dads, that had a strong showing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then broke up so that the other member could become a rabbi. Jesse's third attempt at a novel, a young-adult comedy titled, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Harry Abrams: New York, 2012), was his first to be published and has since been translated into five languages; he was also hired by Indian Paintbrush to write the eponymous feature-film adaptation, which is tentatively scheduled to shoot in the summer of 2014. He has also adapted the book Crazy U for New Line Studios as a Will Ferrell vehicle and written a third script that he is preparing to direct himself. Jesse continues to work as a novelist and screenwriter, although that may be a euphemistic treatment of the word "work."
Jesse says: "HAA is a good major for, frankly, anyone who wants to say or write anything at some point in their lives. It trains you to observe intensely at every level, articulate those observations cleanly, and then make sense of them. Also HAA is good because at the very beginning it's impossible to write or talk about art without sounding at least a little bit foolish, and if you're at Harvard, you are probably someone who will benefit from hearing yourself sound foolish from time to time."