Since 1998, Strauss has mainly focused on films, co-writing the screenplays for There's Something About Mary (1998), Head Over Heels (2001), The Santa Clause 2 (2002), The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), Rebound (2005), The Wild (2006), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), You Again (2010). and Free Birds (2013).
He is also credited on Me and the Boys and Odd Man Out.
He frequently collaborates with fellow producer and writer Ed Decter. He, along with Decter replaced Barry Kemp as showrunner of the CBS Tom Selleck comedy The Closer, which eventually came out in 1998.
In 2011, while serving as the executive producer for In Plain Sight, Strauss made multiple appearances on The Howard Stern Show, where he negotiated on-the-air with Eric the Actor to cast Eric in an episode of the series. Eric played a disgruntled landlord during a story involving the FBI investigating a hoarder. Eric ad-libbed the line "Keys, woman" when the script called for him to hold the keys himself—something his disability made difficult due to his deformed hands.