Strauss-Schulson was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City on June 24, 1980. He has one younger sister named Caren. Strauss-Schulson is Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.

He attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating in 2003. Following his graduation, he moved to Los Angeles.

In 2008, Strauss-Schulson’s short film Mano-a-Mano was selected to screen at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The following year, he went back to South by Southwest to premiere his short film Big Pussy, which was subsequently screened at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Strauss-Schulson’s first feature film, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas for New Line Cinema and Mandate Pictures, was released by Warner Bros. on November 4, 2011. The film starred Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, and Patton Oswalt, and was met with a positive reaction from film critics.

His sophomore film, the horror comedy The Final Girls for Sony Pictures Entertainment and Groundswell Productions, premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2015, to positive reviews. The film stars Taissa Farmiga, Malin Åkerman, Nina Dobrev, Adam DeVine, Thomas Middleditch, Alia Shawkat, and Alexander Ludwig. It was released on October 9, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand by Stage 6 Films.

In October 2015, it was reported that TBS had given a pilot order to a comedy series co-created by Strauss-Schulson and Matt Fogel. The pilot was not ordered to series.

Strauss-Schulson’s third feature film as director is the comedy Isn’t It Romantic for New Line Cinema, starring Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, DeVine, and Priyanka Chopra. The film was released by Warner Bros. on February 14, 2019.