Dubuque was born in St. Louis, Missouri, spending time working on the Lake of the Ozarks as a teen.[4][5] He still lives in St. Louis, with his wife and three children,[5] with whom he still frequently visits the Lake of the Ozarks.[5]
Before starting as a screenwriter in 2008, Dubuque worked as a recruitment headhunter.[1][5] He was approached by producer Mark Williams with the rough idea for The Accountant, which Dubuque developed into a script named to the 2011 Black List of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood,[1][6] including doing research to develop the protagonist (played by Ben Affleck) to have high-functioning autism;[1] the film was credited by Autism Speaks for its portrayal of the disorder.[1] The first screenplay of his to be produced, 2012's The Judge, led to Dubuque being recognized as one of Variety's 10 screenwriters to watch[7] and named to the 2012 Black List with 20 mentions.[8][9]
In 2015, Dubuque successfully pitched an action-adventure called The Real McCoy to Universal Pictures, with Chris Pratt attached to star;[10] as of January 2018,[update] the film is still in production.[11][better source needed] Another collaboration with Mark Williams, A Family Man, was released in 2016;[12] with a working title of The Headhunter's Calling, the script was based on Dubuque's previous work in recruitment.[13] Dubuque's teenage experiences at an Ozarks resort[5] led him to work again with producer Mark Williams[14] and male lead Jason Bateman[10] on developing the series Ozark, which was released on Netflix in 2017 and quickly renewed for a second season,[14] as well as earning the writing team a Writers Guild of America Award nomination.[15] In April 2019, Dubuque replaced Damian Szifron as the screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Six Million Dollar Man.[16]
