Curated playlist
American comedy film directors
- Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
- Wes AndersonWes Anderson has said his first ambition was to be a writer, not a director. He grew up making silent films.
- Kevin SmithKevin Smith maxed out credit cards and sold his comic books to make Clerks. The film raised $27,575 and won at Sundance.
- Ben StillerBen Stiller's films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, an average of $79 million per film. Behind that figure stands Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller, an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known…
- Mel BrooksMel Brooks was 14 years old when he climbed onto a diving board at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate hotel in the Borscht Belt. He worked there as a pool-side tummler, an entertainer hired to keep the guests amused. On this day he wore a…
- Jim HensonJim Henson made the first Kermit from a halved table tennis ball and his mother's old coat.
- Buster KeatonBuster Keaton's deadpan face began when he stopped laughing in his father's vaudeville act.
- Robert RodriguezRobert Rodriguez paid for his first feature by joining medical testing studies. El Mariachi cost $7,000 in 1992.
- Walt DisneyIn 1928, Walt Disney lost his hit cartoon rabbit Oswald to Universal. Only Ub Iwerks stayed, and Mickey Mouse followed.
- Pat ProftPat Proft helped write the Naked Gun films, yet his name is in none of their titles. He also worked on Police Academy.
- Rob ReinerRob Reiner, the American filmmaker, actor and political activist, once joked about how firmly a sitcom nickname had attached itself to him. "I could win the Nobel Prize and they'd write 'Meathead wins the Nobel Prize.'" The remark came…
- Chris WeitzChris Weitz sent a studio an unrequested 40-page plan to win the job of directing The Golden Compass. He got it in 2003.
- Richard LesterRichard Lester started college at 15 to study psychology, not film. MTV later called him Father of the Music Video.