Spike Jonze Biography

Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel; October 22, 1969) is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman, which include the 1999 film Being John Malkovich (which gave him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Director) and the 2002 film Adaptation, and as the co-writer/director of the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are.

Jonze is well known also for his music video collaborations with Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Björk. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's Jackass. He is currently the creative director of VBS.tv. He is also part owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.

He also co-founded Directors Label, with filmmakers Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry, and the Palm Pictures company.

Early life and education

Spiegel was born on October 22, 1969 in Rockville, Maryland, and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania. His father, Arthur H. Spiegel III, was a distant relation of the Spiegel catalog family and founded APM Management Consultants. His mother, Sandra L. Granzow, is a writer, communications consultant in developing countries, and artist. His brother, Sam "Squeak E. Clean" Spiegel, is a producer and DJ. He also has a sister. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother has German and Scottish ancestry.

Jonze attended SFAI in San Francisco, California. When he was in junior high and high school, Spiegel spent time at Bethesda community store, where the former owner Mike Henderson gave him his nickname "Spike Jonze" in reference to Spike Jones. He fronted Club Homeboy, an international BMX club, with Mark "Lew" Lewman and Andy Jenkins, both co-editors of Freestylin' Magazine in the mid- to late 1980s, where Jonze worked as a photographer. The three also created the youth culture magazines Homeboy and Dirt (the latter of which was described as "Sassy Magazine for boys," being published by the same company and distributed in cellophane bags with the landmark magazine for young women).

Career

In 2006, he was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for "Outstanding Achievement in Commercials in 2005." He was nominated for a body of work that included Hello Tomorrow for Adidas, Lamp for IKEA, and Pardon Our Dust for The Gap. He was a producer and co-creator of MTV television series Jackass and Jackass: The Movie, also directing some of the segments. Jonze has acted in some videos and films; his most prominent role was in Three Kings as the sweet, dimwitted, casually racist Conrad, in which he was directed by friend David O. Russell.

Jonze was also a co-founder and editor of Dirt magazine along with Mark Lewman and Andy Jenkins, as well as an editor for Grand Royal Magazine and senior photographer for Transworld Skateboarding. In the past, Jonze shot street skateboarding videos, most notably Blind's highly influential Video Days in 1991, and Lakai Footwear's Fully Flared in 2007. He also co-directed the Girl Skateboards film Yeah Right! and the Chocolate Skateboards video Hot Chocolate. In the closing credits montage of Yeah Right!, Spike is shown doing a nollie heelflip in loafers. He is also co-owner of Girl Skateboards.

Jonze has many alter egos, including Richard Koufey (alternately spelled Coufey or Couffe), the leader of the Torrance Community Dance Group, an urban troupe that performs in public spaces. The Koufey persona appeared when Jonze, in character, filmed himself dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" as it played on a boom box in a public area. Jonze showed the video to Slim, who appears briefly in the video around the 3:57 mark. Jonze then assembled a group of dancers to perform to Slim's "Praise You" outside a Westwood, California movie theater and taped the performance. The resulting clip was a huge success, and "Koufey" and his troupe were invited to New York City to perform the song for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The video received awards for Best Direction, Breakthrough, and Best Choreography, which Jonze accepted, still in character. Jonze made a mockumentary about the experience called Torrance Rises.

He also has a speaking part along with Dave Eggers in the Beck song "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" from his 2006 album, The Information. He appears in the "Exoskeleton" part.

Since 2007, he has been the creative director at VBS.tv, an online television network supplied by Vice and funded by MTV.

Spike Jonze was part of the Detour-Moleskine project in New York in 2007. The project invites authors to compile and illustrate Moleskine notebooks to provide an intimate insight into the artists' creative process.

Jonze directed Where the Wild Things Are, which opened in the United States on October 16, 2009. It was arguably his most anticipated film to date, the product of an almost decade long collaboration with author Maurice Sendak. The film received generally favorable reviews, and appeared on many critics' end-of-the-year top ten lists.

In July 2009, Jonze acquired the rights to make a film adaptation of the Shane Jones novel, Light Boxes. However, Jonze, in an interview with Times Online, said that Ray Tintori was no longer a director for that project as expected. In an interview with Interview Magazine in June 2010, Jones said the film option had been dropped.

In 2010, he made a 28-minute short titled Scenes from the Suburbs, inspired by the Arcade Fire album The Suburbs. Scenes from his short were used in the music video to the album's title song, "The Suburbs". A dystopian vision of suburbia in the near-future, the short was co-written by Jonze, Win Butler and Will Butler. Expanding on the themes of nostalgia, alienation and childhood, the short premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and saw its online premiere at MUBI on June 27, 2011.

Jonze is good friends with Björk and frequently works with her. He has directed three videos for her and she contributed the theme song for Jonze's Being John Malkovich film.

Jonze is worked on another project with the Beastie Boys for the release of their Santigold collaboration, "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win." In a similar fashion to Jonze's recent work with Arcade Fire, he has directed both "short and epic-length videos" to partner with the single.

In 2011, Jonze directed the music video for "Otis" the second single from the album Watch The Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West. On November 3, 2013, Jonze directed the live music video for Arcade Fire's "Afterlife" and documented Lady Gaga's live performance of "Dope" with Chris Milk for the YouTube Music Awards.

Jonze's next theatrical project is Her, a science fiction romance film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, and Rooney Mara. The film follows a man (Phoenix) who develops a relationship with a seemingly intuitive and humanistic female voice, named "Samantha" (Johansson), produced by an advanced computer operating system.

Personal life

On June 26, 1999, Jonze married director Sofia Coppola, whom he had first met in 1992. On December 5, 2003, the couple filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences." The character of John, a career-driven photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) in Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), was rumored to be based on Jonze, though Coppola has vehemently denied this.

In 2008, Jonze dated Michelle Williams several months after the death of Heath Ledger, but around a year later they split.

In 2011, it was reported that he was dating Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi.

Filmography

Director

Feature films

Year	Film	Budget	US Gross	Awards and nominations	Ref.
1999	Being John Malkovich	$13 million	$22,863,596	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Breakthrough Artist (also for Three Kings) Chlotrudis Award for Best Director Deauville Film Festival " Critics Award Deauville Film Festival " Grand Special Prize Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Newcomer of the Year Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature (shared with Michael Stipe, Sandy Stern, Steve Golin, Vincent Landay) Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Newcomer London Critics Circle Film Award for Director of the Year MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Debut Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Director (2nd place) Venice Film Festival " FIPRESCI Prize Nominated " Academy Award for Best Director Nominated " Bodil Award for Best American Film Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated " César Award for Best Foreign Film Nominated " Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Nominated " Empire Award for Best Debut Nominated " Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (shared with Charlie Kaufman) Nominated " Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award for Best Foreign Director Nominated " Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated " Robert Award for Best American Film
2002	Adaptation	$19 million	$22,498,520	Berlin International Film Festival " Jury Grand Prix San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Director (2nd place) Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated " Berlin International Film Festival " Golden Berlin Bear Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Director Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director
2009	Where the Wild Things Are	$100 million	$100,086,793	Also co-writer; Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated " Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated " Saturn Award for Best Writing
2013	Her			Also writer; Nominated " New York Film Festival " Grand Marnier Fellowship Award

Short films

Year	Film	Role	Awards and nominations	Ref.
1997	How They Get There	Writer, director
1998	Amarillo by Morning	Director
1999	Torrance Rises	Co-director, choreographer, actor
2009	Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak	Co-director
	We Were Once a Fairytale	Writer, director
2010	I'm Here		Nominated " Berlin International Film Festival " Golden Berlin Bear (Best Short Film)
2011	Scenes From the Suburbs	Co-writer, director
	Mourir Auprès De Toi	Co-writer, co-director	Nominated " Warsaw International Film Festival " Short Grand Prix Prize (shared with Simon Cahn)

Music videos

Year	Song	Artist	Notes
1992	"High in High School"	Chainsaw Kittens
	"100%"	Sonic Youth
1993	"Cannonball"	The Breeders	Co-directed by Kim Gordon Produced by Steve Reiss
	"Country at War"	X
	"Daughters of the Kaos"	Luscious Jackson
	"Hang On"	Teenage Fanclub
	"Time for Livin'"	Beastie Boys
1994	"All About Eve"	Marxman
	"Buddy Holly"	Weezer
	"Ditch Digger"	Rocket from the Crypt
	"Divine Hammer"	The Breeders
	"Feel the Pain"	Dinosaur Jr.
	"I Can't Stop Smiling"	Velocity Girl
	"If I Only Had a Brain"	MC 900 Ft. Jesus
	"Old Timer"	that dog.
	"Ricky's Theme"	Beastie Boys
	"Sabotage"		Also writer
	"Sure Shot"
	"Undone - The Sweater Song"	Weezer
1995	"California"	Wax
	"Car Song"	Elastica
	"Crush with Eyeliner"	R.E.M.
	"Freedom of '76"	Ween
	"It's Oh So Quiet"	Björk
	"The Diamond Sea"	Sonic Youth
	"Who Is Next?"	Wax
1996	"Drop"	The Pharcyde
1997	"Da Funk"	Daft Punk
	"Electrolite"	R.E.M.
	"Elektrobank"	The Chemical Brothers
	"It's All About the Benjamins" (Rock Remix)	Puff Daddy
	"Liberty Calls"	Mike Watt
	"Shady Lane"	Pavement
	"Sky's the Limit"	The Notorious B.I.G.
1998	"Home"	Sean Lennon
	"Praise You"	Fatboy Slim	A Torrance Public Film Production
	"Root Down" version 2	Beastie Boys
2000	"Weapon of Choice"	Fatboy Slim
	"What's Up, Fatlip?"	Fatlip
	"Wonderboy"	Tenacious D	As Marcus Von Bueler
2002	"Island in the Sun" (version 2)	Weezer
	"Guess I'm Doing Fine"	Beck
	"It's in Our Hands"	Björk
2003	"Big Brat"	Phantom Planet
2004	"Get Back"	Ludacris
	"Y Control"	Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2005	"Triumph of a Heart"	Björk
2008	"Flashing Lights"	Kanye West	Co-directed with West
2009	"Heaven"	UNKLE	Co-directed with Ty Evans
	"25"	AsDSSka	Co-directed with Crysal Moselle
2010	"Drunk Girls"	LCD Soundsystem	Co-directed with James Murphy
	"The Suburbs"	Arcade Fire
2011	"Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win"	Beastie Boys
	"Otis"	Jay-Z & Kanye West
2013	"Afterlife"	Arcade Fire	Directed live for the YouTube Awards

Video

• Ciao L.A. (director) (1994)
• An Intimate Look Inside the Acting Process with Ice Cube (director) (1999)
• What's Up, Fatlip? (director) (2003)
• The Work of Director Spike Jonze (director) (2003)
• The Mystery of Dalarö (director) (2004)
• Corporate Ghost (actor, director) (2004)
• Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow (cinematographer) (2004)

Skateboard videos

• Rubbish Heap for SMA World Industries (1989)
• Two World Industries Men for SMA World Industries (1989)
• Video Days for Blind (1991)
• Goldfish (1993)
• Mouse (1996)
• The Chocolate Tour (1999)
• Yeah Right! (2003)
• Hot Chocolate! (2004)
• The Krooked Chronicles (2006)
• Fully Flared for Lakai (2007)
• Final Flare for Mark (2008)
• Pretty Sweet for Girl (2012)

Other filmography

Year	Film	Role	Awards and nominations	Ref.
1993	Mi Vida Loca	Actor
1996	Pig!
1997	The Game
	Free Tibet	Cinematographer
1999	Three Kings	Actor (Private First Class Conrad Vig)	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Breakthrough Artist (also for Being John Malkovich)
2001	Human Nature	Producer	Munich Film Festival High Hopes Award (shared with Anthony Bregman, Ted Hope, Charlie Kaufman)
	Keep Your Eyes Open	Actor
2002	Jackass: The Movie	Producer/Actor
2006	Jackass: Number Two
	The Fall
2008	Synecdoche, New York	Producer	Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature (shared with Charlie Kaufman, Anthony Bregman, Sidney Kimmel) Nominated " Gotham Award for Best Film
	Heavy Metal in Baghdad
2009	The 1 Second Film	Producer/Actor
2010	Jackass 3D
	Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life
2011	Moneyball	Actor (Alán)
2013	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa	Producer/Writer
	The Wolf of Wall Street	Actor (Dwayne)

Television

Year	Film	Position
2000	Jackass	Creator, executive producer
2004	Sonic Youth Video Dose	Actor
2010"2012	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret	Actor (Doug Whitney)