Seth Gordon

Last updated
Seth Gordon
Seth Gordon at PaleyFest Fall TV Previews 2014.jpg
Gordon in 2014
Born
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter, editor
Notable work The King of Kong (2007)
Horrible Bosses (2011)
Identity Thief (2013)

Seth Lewis Gordon is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and film editor.

Contents

He has produced and directed for film and television, including for PBS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Staff 1% for Development Fund. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival.

He has directed the films The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), Four Christmases (2008), Horrible Bosses (2011), Identity Thief (2013), and Baywatch (2017). He has also directed several episodes of television series like The Office , Parks and Recreation , Modern Family , Atypical , and For All Mankind .

Life and career

Gordon grew up in Evanston, Illinois. [1] He attended Yale University, where he studied architecture until leaving in 1997 to teach high school for six months in the small village of Shimanyiro, Kenya. While there he helped secure United Nations financing to finish construction of a school, and began filming what would eventually become the documentary Building Shimanyiro. [2] Upon returning to Yale, Gordon taught himself how to edit his footage on an Avid editing machine. [1] Later, he helped shoot Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing , [1] and after working as cinematographer, editor and producer on various films, he gained prominence with his documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters .

Gordon directed the game company Zynga's "GagaVille" online film in 2010. He co-created and is an executive producer of the Fox television series Breaking In. [3] He directed the 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses , but in August 2013 declined to direct the sequel, citing commitments to the television series The Goldbergs , on which he is an executive producer, and a planned remake of the film WarGames . [4] Gordon directed the pilot of Sneaky Pete for Amazon Studios, which he also produced with Bryan Cranston and David Shore.

Gordon directed the 2017 film version of Baywatch , starring Dwayne Johnson, Priyanka Chopra and Zac Efron. [5]

He graduated from Lakeside School (Seattle) in 1994 and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. [6]

In 2009, Gordon developed and directed a video series focusing on the threat posed by cybercrime to Internet users, H*Commerce: The Business of Hacking You , sponsored by antivirus software company McAfee. [7] Gordon has directed various music videos and commercials, and an episode each of Modern Family and Community , two episodes of The Office , and several episodes of Parks and Recreation . He was a director and executive producer on NBC's Marry Me . Gordon is a director and executive producer on ABC's The Goldbergs . [8] He also serves as a director and executive producer on the Netflix series Atypical . [9]

Filmography

Film

Director

Acting credits

YearTitleRole
2011Horrible BossesRalph Peterberg (voice role)
2017BaywatchHelicopter pilot

Other credits

YearTitleRole
2005 Cry Wolf Editor, associate producer, and second unit director
2015 Pixels Executive producer
2022 The Lost City Story writer

Documentary film

YearTitleDirectorProducerWriter
2005 New York Doll NoYesNo
2007 The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters YesNoNo
2010 Freakonomics YesExecutiveYes
Make BelieveNoExecutiveNo
2011 Undefeated NoYesNo
2014 Mitt NoExecutiveNo
Print the Legend NoYesNo
2015 Finders Keepers NoYesNo
Dark WebNoExecutiveNo
2017 Bill Nye: Science Guy NoYesNo
Served Like a Girl NoYesNo
2018WrestleNoYesNo

Television

YearTitleDirectorExecutive
producer
WriterNotes
2009 Community YesNoNoEpisode "Environmental Science"
2009–2010 The Office YesNoNoEpisodes "Double Date" and "The Delivery" (part 1)
Parks and Recreation YesNoNoEpisodes "Canvassing" and "The Stakeout"
2010 Modern Family YesNoNoEpisode "Travels with Scout"
2011 Breaking In YesYesYesAlso creator;
Directed 5 episodes
2013–2017 The Goldbergs YesYesNo7 episodes
2014–2015 Marry Me YesYesNo3 episodes
2017 Atypical YesYesNoEpisodes "Antarctica" and "A Nice Neutral Smell"
The Good Doctor YesYesNoEpisodes "Burnt Food" and "She"
Sneaky Pete YesYesNoEpisode "Pilot"
2019 For All Mankind YesYesNoEpisodes "Red Moon" and "He Built the Saturn V"
2020 Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector YesNoNoEpisode "Pilot"
2022The Long Game: Bigger Than BasketballYesYesNoDirected 5 episodes
2023 The Night Agent YesYesNo

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brett Ratner</span> American film director and producer (born 1969)

Brett Ratner is an American film director and producer. He directed the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, Tower Heist, and Hercules. He is a producer of several films, including the Horrible Bosses series, as well as executive producer on other projects, including the films The Revenant and War Dogs and the television series Prison Break.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lakeside School (Seattle)</span> School in Seattle, Washington, United States

Lakeside School is a private school located in Seattle, Washington, for grades 5–12. As of 2024, school review website Niche ranked Lakeside School as the best private high school in Washington state and the 52nd best private high school in the United States. Niche also ranked Lakeside as the 28th best high school for STEM in the United States.

Baywatch is an American action drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, who produced the show throughout its 11-season run. The series focuses on both professional and personal challenges faced by the characters, portrayed by a large rotating ensemble cast that includes Pamela Anderson, Alexandra Paul, Gregory Alan Williams, Jeremy Jackson, Parker Stevenson, David Chokachi, Billy Warlock, Erika Eleniak, David Charvet, Yasmine Bleeth, and Nicole Eggert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Bateman</span> American actor (born 1969)

Jason Kent Bateman is an American actor and director. He is known for his starring roles in numerous comedy films and for portraying Michael Bluth in the Fox / Netflix sitcom Arrested Development (2003-2019) and Marty Byrde in the Netflix crime drama series Ozark (2017–2022). He has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2017, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gordon Green</span> American filmmaker

David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seth Rogen</span> Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker (born 1982)

Seth Aaron Rogen is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and got a part on Apatow's sitcom Undeclared in 2001, which also hired him as a writer. Rogen landed a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), for which the writing team was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Apatow subsequently guided him toward a film career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Kirkman</span> American comic book writer

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for co-creating The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Invincible, Tech Jacket, Outcast, Oblivion Song, and Fire Power for Image Comics, in addition to writing Ultimate X-Men, Irredeemable Ant-Man and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wong (filmmaker)</span> American television and film director (born 1959)

James Wong is an American television and film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for co-writing episodes of the Fox science fiction supernatural drama series The X-Files with his writing partner, Glen Morgan. Morgan and Wong are founders of the Hard Eight Pictures and co-created Space: Above and Beyond. Wong also directed the films Final Destination (2000) and Final Destination 3 (2006) in the Final Destination film series, The One (2001), starring Jet Li, and Dragonball Evolution (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Lerios</span> American pianist and vocalist

Cory Charles Lerios is an American pianist and vocalist. He is a founding member of the platinum-record-selling soft rock band Pablo Cruise, and since the mid-1980s he has scored music for film and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wiebe</span> American esports player

Steven J. Wiebe is an American two-time world champion of the video game Donkey Kong, most recently holding the title from September 20, 2010, to January 10, 2011, with a high score of 1,064,500. Wiebe was the first person to achieve over a million points on Donkey Kong, with 1,006,600 on July 4, 2004. He is one of the primary subjects of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Like his Donkey Kong rival Billy Mitchell, Wiebe was put in a Topps Allen & Ginter baseball set, which is featured in the 2009 edition of the baseball product.

Jonathan A. Levine is an American film director and screenwriter.

<i>H*Commerce</i> Film by Seth Gordon

H*Commerce: The Business of Hacking You is a six-part online documentary film series directed by Seth Gordon. It centers on the struggle between criminal hackers and security experts. Each segment is between five and eight minutes in length. The first was released on the Internet on May 20, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Catlin</span> American TV writer and producer

Sam Catlin is an American television writer, director, and producer. He is the showrunner of AMC's Preacher, and previously worked as a writer/producer on Breaking Bad. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for his work on Breaking Bad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Road to the North Pole</span> 7th episode of the 9th season of Family Guy

"Road to the North Pole" is the seventh episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. Directed by Greg Colton and co-written by Chris Sheridan and Danny Smith, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 12, 2010. In "Road to the North Pole", Stewie and Brian go on an adventure to the North Pole so that Stewie can kill Santa Claus. They discover a dreary, polluting factory full of inbred elves and carnivorous, feral reindeer, along with a sickly, exhausted and suicidal Santa. Stewie and Brian take pity on him and decide to fulfill Christmas by delivering gifts to the entire globe, albeit unsuccessfully.

<i>Horrible Bosses</i> 2011 American comedy film

Horrible Bosses is a 2011 American black comedy film directed by Seth Gordon, written by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein, from a story by Markowitz. It stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx in their supporting roles. The plot follows three friends, played by Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis, who decide to murder their respective overbearing, abusive bosses, portrayed by Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell.

Joshua Safran is an American television screenwriter and executive producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Vogt-Roberts</span> American film director

Jordan Charles Vogt-Roberts is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, and television director. His feature directorial debut, The Kings of Summer, screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film also won the Narrative Feature Audience Award at the 2013 Dallas International Film Festival. In 2017, Vogt-Roberts directed the MonsterVerse film Kong: Skull Island.

<i>Baywatch</i> (film) 2017 film by Seth Gordon

Baywatch is a 2017 American action comedy film directed by Seth Gordon, with a screenplay by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, from a story by Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Thomas Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant. It is based on the television series created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann and takes place within the same fictional universe. The film stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. The story follows lifeguard Mitch Buchannon and his team who must take down a drug lord in an effort to save their beach.

Rhys Thomas is a Welsh director and producer best known for his work on Saturday Night Live for NBC and the series Documentary Now! for IFC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dany Garcia</span> American film producer

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 overseeing a portfolio of brands in business, entertainment, and food, including Teremana Tequila, Athleticon, and the Project Rock Collection at Under Armour, VOSS, Atom Tickets, Salt & Straw, ZOA Energy, Acorns, and the UFL.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Roston, Tom (November 30, 2008). "In 'Four Christmases,' Seth Gordon explores a season's gratings". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 10, 2009.
  2. Fernandez, Jay A. (November 26, 2008). "Director traveled unlikely road to "Christmases"". Reuters . Retrieved June 10, 2009.
  3. Seidman, Robert (November 19, 2010). "Fox Mid-Season Schedule – 'American Idol' to Wednesdays/Thursdays; 'Fringe' to Fridays". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
  4. McNary, Dave (August 7, 2013). "'Horrible Bosses 2' Loses Director Seth Gordon". Variety . Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  5. Seth Gordon to Direct Dwayne Johnson in Paramount’s ‘Baywatch’ Movie
  6. Collins, Jim. "Seth Gordon '94: Revealing a one-off perspective". No. Fall 2016. Lakeside Magazine. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  7. Swartz, Jon (May 20, 2009). "Miniseries reveals truth about hackers". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved June 11, 2009.
  8. Cieply, Michael (2011). "Seth Gordon Filmography". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved June 11, 2009.
  9. Andreeva, Nellie (2016-10-17). "Netflix Greenlights 'Atypical' Series From 'The Goldbergs' Duo; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Keir Gilchrist & Michael Rapaport To Star". Deadline. Retrieved 2016-10-17.