Jay Anthony White grew up on Detroit's Westside in a modest two-family flat on West Grand Blvd., next door to the famous Motown recording studio, Hitsville U.S.A. He started his writing career in the winter of 2002 when he began writing his own stand-up comedy routines and spent two years opening shows for acts like Mike Bonner, Sheryl Underwood, Tony Roberts, and many others. In 2006, Jay wrote and produced his first full-feature film, Project 313. Project 313was featured at the Pan African Film Festival and was distributed nationally through Universal Home video. In Fall 2007, Jay traveled to Los Angeles for the American Black Film Festival and after numerous meetings with actor/director Bill Duke, as well as producers, managers, and his current attorney Eric Feig, Jay moved to L.A. After a short time in Los Angeles, and interest in a handful of Jay's projects, his screenplay Pawn was optioned and produced to both critical and commercial success. Pawn stars Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Nikki Reed, Stephen Lang, Michael Chiklis, Common, and Sean Faris and was directed by David Armstrong, DP of the Saw series 1-5.