Darrin Prescott (born December 2, 1968) is an American stunt performer, film director, second unit director, and actor, most well known for his work on the John Wick series and the 2017 film Baby Driver .
Prescott got his start in stuntwork with the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Eraser before moving into second unit directing with the 2010 film Faster and the 2011 film Drive .[ citation needed ]
In 2014, Prescott got his big break with the 2014 Keanu Reeves-led film John Wick , of which he served as second unit director and co-stunt coordinator. He was awarded with a Taurus World Stunt Award. [1] He would later return to work on John Wick: Chapter 2 in 2017 and John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum in 2019.
Also in 2017, Prescott served as stunt coordinator and second unit director on the Edgar Wright film Baby Driver . Prescott saw this as his biggest undertaking yet due to the complicated stuntwork involved. [2] [3]
His next project was the 2018 superhero film Deadpool 2 , which reunited him with his John Wick partner Jonathan Eusebio. [4]
In 2021, he served as second unit director for Cate Shortland on Black Widow . [5]
Other films Prescott has served as second unit director on include Black Panther , Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , Ford v. Ferrari , Term Life , Stand Up Guys , Madame Web , The Hunter's Prayer , and Deadpool 2 . [6]
Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983).
David Richard Ellis was an American film director and stunt performer born in Santa Monica, California, in 1952. His credits included dozens of films and television series including National Lampoon's Vacation, Baywatch, Lethal Weapon, and Patriot Games.
Buddy Joe Hooker is an American actor, second unit director, stunt man, and stunt coordinator. He is known for his expertise in designing and performing vehicle stunts for movies and television.
The Taurus World Stunt Awards is a yearly award ceremony held midyear that honors stunt performers in movies. It is held each year in Los Angeles. The first awards were given out in 2001. The deciding committee has been around since the year 2000. The awards were created by Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull. The awards statue was sculpted by Austrian artist Jos Pirkner, and is a figure in the form of a winged bull.
Brian Smrz, also Brian Delaney Smrz, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director of projects such as Mission: Impossible 2, Live Free or Die Hard, Taxi, Eagle Eye, Night at the Museum, Windtalkers, Iron Man 3, and Superman Returns, among others. He is also the director of Hero Wanted, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta and of 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke and Xu Qing. He won the Taurus Award twice and was nominated for a third time.
Scott Leva is a Academy Award-winning stuntman and stunt coordinator who entered stuntwork in the 1970s.
Jophery Clifford Brown was a Major League Baseball pitcher who made one relief appearance for the Chicago Cubs. He became an award-winning stunt man and actor.
David Leitch is an American filmmaker, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and actor. He made his directorial debut on the action film John Wick (2014) with Chad Stahelski, though only Stahelski was credited. He later also directed the films Atomic Blonde (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), Bullet Train (2022), and The Fall Guy (2024).
Damien Gareth Walters is a British freerunner and former gymnast from Derbyshire who specializes in tumbling and trampoline. In January 2024, he was announced as the director of an already-filmed comedy action film Stuntnuts Does School Fight which would later feature the same stunt crew in an upcoming Hit-Girl & Kick-Ass reboot.
John Wick is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad. Keanu Reeves stars as John Wick, a legendary hitman who comes out of retirement to seek revenge against the men who killed his dog, a final gift from his recently deceased wife. The film also stars Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and Willem Dafoe.
Baby Driver is a 2017 action film written and directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Elgort as a getaway driver seeking freedom from a life of crime with his girlfriend Debora. Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, and Kevin Spacey appear in supporting roles. Eric Fellner and his Working Title Films partner Tim Bevan produced Baby Driver in association with Big Talk Productions' Nira Park. Sony and TriStar Pictures handled commercial distribution of the film. Baby Driver was a co-production pact between TriStar and MRC.
Deadpool 2 is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. It is the sequel to Deadpool (2016) and the eleventh installment in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by David Leitch and written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds, who stars in the title role alongside Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Jack Kesy. In the film, Deadpool forms the X-Force to protect a young mutant from the time-traveling soldier Cable.
Charles F. Stahelski is an American stuntman and filmmaker. He is considered a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He first achieved prominence as a stunt performer and coordinator, notably as the key stunt double for Keanu Reeves on The Matrix (1999), and as the martial arts stunt coordinator on its first two sequels. He subsequently directed the 2014 film John Wick, starring Reeves, and its three sequels.
Kerry Darrell Rossall is an American stunt coordinator, stuntman, actor and film producer known for three Taurus World Stunt nominations for Apocalypse Now Redux (2001). He appeared in the films Apocalypse Now (1979), They Live (1988), The Crow: City of Angels (1996), Tomorrow You're Gone (2012) and produced the films Friend of the World (2020) and Movin' Too Fast (2006).
Michael "Mike" Gunther is an American film director and stuntman. He is known for being the second unit director on Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Star Trek Beyond (2016), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), and Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). At the end of 2011, he directed the feature film Setup starring Bruce Willis. During 2017-2019 Gunther developed and then directed the popular Netflix "Rogue Warfare" trilogy of films, In 2020 he was the 2nd Unit Director for the Will Smith, Martin Lawrence blockbuster "Bad Boys For Life". 2021 found him serving as the Second Unit Director on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for Marvel Pictures. Gunther also owns and operates 5150Action Productions, a film production company focusing on a wide slate of original content development.
Wade Winston Wilson, also known as Deadpool, is a character portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series and later the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise produced by Marvel Studios. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, he was loosely adapted for his first appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), in which he is depicted as a member of Major William Stryker's Team X who is transformed into a genetically altered mutant killer known as Weapon XI, before being defeated by his former teammate Wolverine. This iteration of the character was negatively received by both critics and fans alike for deviating from the source material.
Michael G. “Mic” Rodgers is an American film and commercial director, second unit director, stunt coordinator, and stunt performer. As a stunt performer, he is known for serving as a stunt double for actors such as Mel Gibson. He has also served as a second unit action director and/or stunt coordinator for films such as Braveheart,Hacksaw Ridge,The Fast and The Furious, and Twister. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, he won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2002 for his invention of the “Mic Rig,” a stunt vehicle. He has also won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work on Hacksaw Ridge and two Taurus World Stunt awards.
Kenneth W. Bates is an American stuntman, film producer, second unit director, and actor, best known for his work with Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Jerry Bruckheimer.
William H.. Burton, also known as Billy Burton, is an American stuntman, second unit director, film director, and actor.
Gary M. Hymes is an American stuntman, second unit director, and film actor.