Jake Kasdan | |
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 Kasdan in 2012 | |
| Born | Jacob Kasdan October 28, 1974 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse | Inara George |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent |
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Jacob Kasdan (born October 28, 1974) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing Walk Hard (2007), Bad Teacher (2011), Sex Tape (2014), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019).
Kasdan was born and raised in a Jewish family, with little religious education [1] in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Meg (née Goldman), a writer, and writer-director Lawrence Kasdan. [2] His younger brother, Jon Kasdan, also works in the film and television industry as an actor and writer.
Kasdan has directed seven theatrical films: Zero Effect (1998), Orange County (2002), The TV Set (2006), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Bad Teacher (2011), Sex Tape (2014), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). He has also worked in television, most notably with Judd Apatow, as a consulting producer and director on Freaks and Geeks and as a director on Undeclared . He has also directed numerous stage productions. He is attached to direct John Grisham novel Calico Joe to a family film adaptation.
In 2008, Kasdan received his first Golden Globe nomination for Walk Hard in the Best Original Song category (shared with John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and Marshall Crenshaw), but lost to "Guaranteed" from Into the Wild (written by Eddie Vedder).
As a child, he made several appearances in his father's movies such as The Big Chill and Silverado (in the former he is an autograph seeker at a funeral and in the latter a stable boy).
After the success of New Girl , Kasdan announced that on July 11, 2012, that he had signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television, through The Detective Agency, to pursue own projects. [3]
In February 2015, Fox announced it had greenlit a pilot for the comedy The Grinder to be directed by Kasdan and starring Rob Lowe. [4]
On March 26, 2019, The Detective Agency's producing partners Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar reupped, and signed a new overall deal at 20th Century Fox Television. [5]
In October 2021, it was announced that Disney+ had given a series order to a television adaptation of the graphic novel American Born Chinese . It will be produced by 20th Television with Kelvin Yu and Charles Yu as writers and executive producers, Marvin Mar and Kasdan as executive producers, and Destin Daniel Cretton as director and executive producer. [6] Most recently, he served as executive producer of the workplace comedy pilot XYZ at ABC. [7]
Kasdan is married to singer-songwriter Inara George of The Bird and the Bee. They have three children, including twins, Beau and Lorelei Kasdan and older son Otis Kasdan. [8]
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Zero Effect | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2002 | Orange County | Yes | No | No |
| 2006 | The TV Set | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Bad Teacher | Yes | Executive | No |
| 2014 | Sex Tape | Yes | Executive | No |
| 2017 | Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | Yes | Executive | No |
| 2019 | Jumanji: The Next Level | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | Red One | Yes | Yes | No |
Producer
| Year | Title | Producer |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Shades of Ray | Executive |
| 2011 | Friends with Kids | Yes |
Acting credits
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | The Big Chill | Autograph Seeker |
| 1985 | Silverado | Stable Boy |
| 1988 | The Accidental Tourist | Scott Canfield |
| 1998 | Zero Effect | Bank Teller (voice) |
| 2008 | Shades of Ray | Director # 3 |
Soundtrack credits
| Year | Title | Song |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Zero Effect | Let's Run Off and Get Married |
| Cold and Dark in My Heart | ||
| 2007 | Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | Walk Hard |
| Take My Hand | ||
| (Mama) You Got To Love Your Negro Man | ||
| Cut My Brother in Half Blues | ||
| There's a Change a'Happening (I Can Feel It) | ||
| (You Make Me So) Hard |
Other credits
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Grand Canyon | Production assistant |
| 1994 | Wyatt Earp | Archivist |
| Year(s) | Title | Director | Executive Producer | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–00 | Freaks and Geeks | Yes | No | No | Director (5 episodes) / Also consulting producer (15 episodes) |
| 2000 | Grosse Pointe | Yes | No | No | 2 episodes |
| 2001 | Undeclared | Yes | No | No | Episode: "Prototype" |
| 2002 | Zero Effect | Yes | Co-Executive | Yes | Unsold television pilot |
| 2006 | Cracking Up | Yes | No | No | Episode: "The Fixer" |
| 2008 | Californication | Yes | No | No | Episode: "In a Lonely Place" |
| 2011 | Spring/Fall | Yes | No | No | Television film |
| 2011–18 | New Girl | Yes | Yes | No | Director (7 episodes) / Executive producer (146 episodes) |
| 2012–13 | Ben and Kate | Yes | Yes | No | Director (2 episodes) / Executive producer (16 episodes) |
| 2015 | Weird Loners | Yes | Yes | No | Director (2 episodes) / Executive producer (6 episodes) |
| 2015–16 | The Grinder | Yes | Yes | No | Director (2 episodes) / Executive producer (22 episodes) |
| 2015–20 | Fresh off the Boat | Yes | Yes | No | Director (Episode: "The Shunning") / Executive producer (116 episodes) |
| 2016–19 | Speechless | No | Yes | No | 63 episodes |
| 2017 | Jalen Vs. Everybody | No | Yes | No | Television film |
| 2019 | Heart of Life | No | Yes | No | Television film |
| 2019–20 | Bless This Mess | No | Yes | No | 26 episodes |
| 2021–present | Doogie Kamealoha, M.D | Yes | Yes | No | Director (Episode: "Aloha – The Hello One") / Executive producer (10 episodes) |
| 2023 | Prom Pact | No | Yes | No | Television film |
| 2023 | American Born Chinese | No | Yes | No | [9] |
Acting credits
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Young Rock | Tyler the Director | Episode: "A Christmas Peril" |
| Year | Award | Category | Film | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Sierra Award | Best Song | Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | Won | Shared with Judd Apatow, Marshall Crenshaw and John C. Reilly |
| 2008 | Golden Globe | Best Original Song | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Grammy | Best Song Written for Motion Picture Television or Other Visual Media | Nominated | ||
| 2012 | Emmy Award | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series | New Girl | Nominated | Pilot |
Frederick Aaron Savage is an American actor and director. He is best known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series The Wonder Years (1988–1993). He has earned several awards and nominations, such as People's Choice Awards and Young Artist Awards. He is also known for playing the Grandson in The Princess Bride, and voiced the title protagonist in Oswald. Savage has worked as a director, and in 2005 later starred in the television sitcom Crumbs. Savage returned to acting in the television series The Grinder, as well as the Netflix series Friends from College.
Chris Van Allsburg is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.
Freaks and Geeks is an American teen comedy-drama television series created by Paul Feig and executive-produced by Judd Apatow that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. The show is set in a suburban high school near Detroit during 1980–81. The theme of Freaks and Geeks reflects "the sad, hilarious unfairness of teen life". With little success when it first aired, due to an erratic episode schedule and conflicts between the creators and NBC, the series was canceled after airing 12 out of the 18 episodes. The series became a cult classic, and Apatow continued the show's legacy by incorporating the actors in future productions.
Judd Apatow is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), This Is 40 (2012), Trainwreck (2015), The King of Staten Island (2020), and The Bubble (2022).
Martin Schienle, known professionally as Martin Starr, is an American actor. He is known for the television roles of Bill Haverchuck on the short-lived comedy drama Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), Roman DeBeers on the comedy series Party Down, Bertram Gilfoyle on the HBO series Silicon Valley (2014–2019), for his film roles in Knocked Up (2007) and Adventureland (2009), and as Roger Harrington in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films The Incredible Hulk (2008), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Simon Maxwell Helberg is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Howard Wolowitz in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019), for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and as Cosmé McMoon in the film Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.
Michael A. Viola is an American producer, musician, songwriter, and singer, best known for his work with Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, J.S. Ondara, Mandy Moore, and Jenny Lewis. His original music has been featured on soundtracks for movies such as That Thing You Do!, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Get Him to the Greek.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan, and written by Kasdan and co-producer Judd Apatow. It stars John C. Reilly, Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows and Jenna Fischer. A parody of the biopic genre, Walk Hard is the story of a fictional early rock and roll star played by Reilly.
American Born Chinese is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. Released in 2006 by First Second Books, it was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards in the category of Young People's Literature. It won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, the Publishers Weekly Comics Week Best Comic of the Year, the San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, the 2006/2007 Best Book Award from The Chinese American Librarians Association, and Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the Year. It also made the Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novel for Youth, the NPR Holiday Pick, and Time Top Ten Comic of the Year. It was colored by cartoonist Lark Pien, who received the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Colorist for her work on the book.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the 2007 film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Kelvin Yu is an American actor and writer.
Destin Daniel Cretton is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his films Short Term 12 (2013), The Glass Castle (2017), Just Mercy (2019) and the Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by the writing teams of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, based on a story conceived by McKenna. The film is the third installment in the Jumanji film series and a sequel to Jumanji (1995). It stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale. The story focuses on a group of teenagers who come across Jumanji, now transformed into a video game twenty-two years after the events of the 1995 film. They find themselves trapped inside the game as a set of adult avatars, seeking to complete a treacherous quest alongside another player who has been trapped since 1996.
Jumanji is an American media franchise, based on the children's book Jumanji (1981) and its sequel Zathura (2002), written by Chris Van Allsburg. The first film was produced by TriStar Pictures, and subsequent films by Columbia Pictures, both subsidiaries of Sony Pictures. The franchise follows the adventures of various people who find themselves imperiled when playing an enchanted game that comes with a variety of dangerous jungle elements that the players must survive as they play. Ultimately, the only way to end the disruptions is to finish the game while enduring its dangers.
Jumanji: The Next Level is a 2019 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. The film is the fourth installment in the Jumanji film series and the sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017). Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, and Madison Iseman reprise their roles from the previous film while Awkwafina, Danny Glover, and Danny DeVito join the cast. The film's plot takes place two years after Welcome to the Jungle, in which the same group of teenagers, along with an old friend and two unwitting additions, become trapped in Jumanji once again. There, they all find themselves facing new problems and challenges with both old and new avatars, while having to save the land from a new villain to escape.
Dany Garcia Rienzi is an American film producer and businesswoman. She is the founder of GSTQ, and the CEO and chair of The Garcia Companies and TGC Management, overseeing a portfolio of brands in business, entertainment, and food, including TGC Management, Teremana Tequila, Athleticon, and the Project Rock Collection at Under Armour, VOSS, Atom Tickets, Salt & Straw, ZOA Energy, Acorns, and the UFL.
Red One is an upcoming American Christmas action-adventure film, directed by Jake Kasdan, with a script written by Chris Morgan, from an original story by Hiram Garcia. The film stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in the lead roles, and features Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Liu, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, J. K. Simmons, Nick Kroll and Kristofer Hivju in supporting roles. Johnson, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Kasdan, Melvin Mar, and Morgan serve as producers.
American Born Chinese is an American fantasy action comedy television series created by Kelvin Yu for Disney+. It follows tenth-grader Jin Wang, who is struggling to fit in with his peers. When he is tasked with showing new exchange student Wei-Chen around, he is unexpectedly thrust into a battle between mythical Chinese gods, including Sun Wukong and Guanyin. The series is based on the 2006 graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, who drew inspiration from his own adolescent years in the 1990s, incorporating elements from Chinese folk tales and mysticism found in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Wonder Man is an upcoming American television miniseries created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is intended to be one of the television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Guest serves as showrunner. The series is also produced by Family Owned and Onyx Collective.
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