Jonathan Kasdan

• 1. Introduction

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  Jonathan Kasdan first appeared on screen in 1983, playing the son of Harold and Sarah in The Big Chill, a film made by his own father. Today his name appears in credits as a screenwriter, director, producer and actor. The path between those two points is unusual. A child who began in front of the camera eventually moved behind it and began shaping the stories himself. How does a boy raised among filmmakers find his own place in the business? What did he write, what did he direct, and where did his work end up? The answers run through high school television, a debut film shown in France, and a fantasy series.

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• 2. Born Into Film

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  Jonathan Peter Kasdan was born on the 30th of September 1979 in Los Angeles. His mother, Meg, whose maiden name was Goldman, was a writer. His father, Lawrence Kasdan, was a writer and director. Jon, as he is often called, grew up in a Jewish family with little religious education. He has an older brother, Jake, who is also a director and actor. Two parents and a sibling all worked in storytelling, so the film business was simply the family trade. His first credits, though, came from small parts in other people's films rather than from the writing desk.

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• 3. Small Parts

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  In 1985 he played a boy at an outpost in the western Silverado. Three years later, in 1988, he appeared as a boy at a doctor's office in The Accidental Tourist. In 1990 he took the role of Dominic in I Love You to Death. By 1994 he was a bar boy in Wyatt Earp. As a young adult he kept acting. In 2002 he played Barry in Slackers and Jack Pendick, a trainee, in Big Trouble. In 2003 he appeared as Defuniak in Dreamcatcher. He was still taking small parts in 2012, when he played an officiant in Darling Companion.

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• 4. Pages Over Parts

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  At 17, while a junior in high school, Kasdan was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. A few years later, his television work began to show a shift from acting toward writing. In 1999 he played Tommy in the Freaks and Geeks episode titled Tricks and Treats. In 2000 he wrote another episode of that series, called The Little Things. From 2000 to 2002 he was credited on five episodes of Dawson's Creek. In one of them, Cigarette Burns, he played a Gawky-Looking Kid. He was also credited on nine episodes of Californication between 2011 and 2014, and on two episodes of Roadies in 2016.

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• 5. The Feature Films

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  Kasdan's first film as a director was In the Land of Women, which reached American audiences in 2007. He also wrote its screenplay. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, a year before that release. In 2012 came The First Time, which also appears among his film credits. In 2018 he was credited on Solo: A Star Wars Story. He also played Bink Otauna in a scene that was deleted from the film. In 2022 he would return to television with a series called Willow.

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• 6. Return To Willow

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  Kasdan is listed as the developer of Willow, a series that ran in 2022 and 2023. He also wrote three of its episodes. That makes the show one of his most hands-on projects, since he helped shape the series as well as contributing scripts. The series also has a companion documentary special from 2023, titled Willow: Behind the Magic, which appears in his television credits.

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