Duke Johnson (director)

Last updated
Duke Johnson
Duke Johnson director.jpg
Duke Johnson at the 2015 Fantastic Fest
Born (1979-03-20) March 20, 1979 (age 46)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Alma mater New York University, AFI Conservatory
Occupation(s)Director, Writer, Producer
Years active2000–present
SpouseSoyoung Na

Duke Johnson is an American film director who specializes in stop-motion animation. [1] He currently serves as a director and junior partner for Dino Stamatopoulos's animation production studio Starburns Industries in Burbank, California. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life

Johnson was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended St. John Vianney High School. Between his second and third years at St John Vianney, he attended a summer film course at Columbia College Chicago. [4] [5] He graduated from the film school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he spent a semester studying animation in Prague. [6] After graduating, he spent three years working as a waiter in a New York restaurant before moving to Los Angeles, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory in 2006. [5] [7] At AFI, he directed his student film Marrying God, for which he won 8 awards for best student film or best short film. [8]

Career

Johnson has been nominated for Annie Awards in 2011 and 2012 for directing stop-motion episodes of shows such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and Community . [8] [9]

In 2016, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in the 88th Academy Awards for co-directing the stop-motion comedy-drama film Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman. [10] [11]

Johnson made his solo directing debut with the upcoming film The Actor , based on the 2010 novel Memory by Donald E. Westlake. [12]

Filmography

Short film

YearTitleDirectorProducer
2006Marrying GodYesNo
2017MoonwrappedNoYes

Feature film

YearTitle Director Producer Writer Notes
2015 Anomalisa YesYesNoCo-directed with Charlie Kaufman
2025 The Actor YesYesYes

Television

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerNotes
2008 Moral Orel YesNoNoEpisode "Help"
2010 Community YesNoNoEpisode "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
2010–2012 Mary Shelley's Frankenhole YesYesYesAlso matte painter
2012 Beforel Orel: Trust YesNoYesTV special; also animator
2020 Cosmos: Possible Worlds YesNoNoSupervising animation director
Episode "Vavilov"

Other credits

YearTitleRoleNotes
2003 Just an American Boy CinematographerDocumentary film
2020 I'm Thinking of Ending Things Producer of animation
2025 Severance Animator of "Lumon is Listening" videoEpisode "Hello, Ms. Cobel"

References

  1. ↑ Rooney, David (5 September 2015). "Charlie Kaufman's 'Anomalisa': Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. ↑ "Team". Starburns Industries. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Tapley, Kristopher (8 September 2015). "Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson On Passion Project 'Anomalisa'". Variety. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Calvin (10 January 2016). "Charlie Kaufman teams up with St. Louis native Duke Johnson for 'Anomalisa'". stltoday.com. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 Debruge, Peter (29 December 2015). "10 Directors to Watch: How Duke Johnson Came to Co-Direct Charlie Kaufman's 'Anomalisa'". Yahoo! Movies. yahoo.com. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Peterson, Deb (1 December 2010). "St. Louis' Duke Johnson is directing an NBC Christmas show". stltoday.com. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "AFI CONSERVATORY CONTINUES WINNING STREAK WITH ALUM DUKE JOHNSON'S GRAND JURY PRIZE WIN AT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL" (Press release). American Film Institute. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  8. 1 2 Duke Johnson at IMDb
  9. ↑ Robinson, Tasha (18 January 2016). "Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson talk about the technical and emotional work behind Anomalisa". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "2016 Nominees". Oscars.org - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "Nominations Announced for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2016". bafta.org. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Shooting of "The Actor" Moving to Budapest This Quarter". Budapest Reporter. November 16, 2022.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.