Rian Johnson

Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitioning to higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success. Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion. He returned to the mystery genre with Knives Out (2019) and its sequel Glass Onion (2022), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively. Additionally, Johnson is also known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), namely "Ozymandias", "Fly", and "Fifty-One"; for the latter, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series in 2013. He also created a murder mystery series titled Poker Face for Peacock with Natasha Lyonne. Johnson was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023. Early life Johnson was born on December 17, 1973, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, until sixth grade, when he moved to San Clemente, California. He attended San Clemente High School (graduating in 1992), where Brick was predominantly filmed. He attended the University of Southern California and graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1996. Johnson's second short film, Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!!, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", was included as an easter egg on the Looper Blu-ray. Career Johnson has said he was inspired to become a film director after seeing Woody Allen's 1977 film, Annie Hall. "It moved me in a way that very few other films have moved me. That's something that, I pray to God, if I am able to keep making movies, I can only hope, twenty years down the line maybe, I'll be able to approach."