Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze (born October 22, 1969, Rockville, Maryland, U.S.) is an American director and producer known for his visually arresting and innovative music videos and films.

Jonze grew up in Maryland. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 after graduating from high school. An ardent BMX biker, he soon became an assistant editor and later photographer for the independent biking magazine Freestylin’. Jonze was also involved in the alternative skateboarding scene, and his unique videos of skateboarders, most notably Video Days, led to his work on music videos.

In 1992 Jonze codirected the music video for “100%,” a song by the influential noise band Sonic Youth. The video features footage of skateboarders in Los Angeles cut against clips of the band playing in an unimpressive living room. Jonze’s music video for the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” garnered notice in 1994. The video parodies popular police shows as the band members fight, slide, and needlessly set off explosives while wearing fake hairpieces. Jonze’s quirky humor appeared again in the 1994 video for Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” which features the band in 1950s attire performing as if in a scene from the American television show Happy Days.

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Jonze earned further accolades for his music video for Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” (1999), in which he portrayed a choreographer who leads a dance routine outside a California movie theater. The 2001 video for Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” showcased Jonze’s talent for long tracking shots and beautiful visual images with no explanation. It featured actor Christopher Walken tap-dancing in an empty hotel, often defying the laws of physics. In addition to music videos, Jonze also worked as a cinematographer for the short film Bed, Bath and Beyond (1996), which was cowritten by Sofia Coppola, whom Jonze married in 1998 (divorced 2003).

After directing the documentary short Amarillo by Morning (1998), Jonze helmed his first feature film, Being John Malkovich (1999). The surreal comedy, which was written by Charlie Kaufman, chronicles the series of bizarre events that occur after a puppeteer (played by John Cusack) discovers a portal into the mind of actor John Malkovich. The film was critically acclaimed and earned Jonze an Academy Award nomination for best director. In 1999 he also starred in his first major film role, portraying a U.S. soldier during the Persian Gulf War in Three Kings.

Jonze next earned notice as the creator and executive producer of the television show Jackass (2000–02) and the subsequent films Jackass: The Movie (2002) and Jackass: Number Two (2006). The series consisted of short videos of people, including skateboarder and cocreator Johnny Knoxville, performing dangerous stunts and unpleasant feats and often injuring themselves. While a huge commercial success, Jackass sparked controversy and criticism for its lack of taste and its potential encouragement of destructive action, especially among teenage boys.

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In 2002 Jonze directed his second feature film, Adaptation, which was also written by Kaufman. The acclaimed dramedy centers on a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) who has difficulty adapting a book about orchids into a movie. A parallel story line follows the book’s author (Meryl Streep) and the orchid thief (Chris Cooper) she is profiling. Jonze’s next movie, Where the Wild Things Are (2009), was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book. He then helmed the technological romance Her (2013), which featured Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who falls in love with a sentient computer operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson. His script for that film earned Jonze an Academy Award. In addition, he cowrote “The Moon Song” for Her, and it received an Oscar nod for best original song.

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During this time Jonze continued to make music videos. He notably directed videos for Lady Gaga’s “Dope” (2013) and for Kanye West’s “Only One” (2015); the video for the latter featured the rapper playing with his young daughter, North. In 2018 Jonze directed an advertisement for Apple’s HomePod; the four-minute film starred musician FKA Twigs. He then directed the televised comedy performance Aziz Ansari: Right Now (2019), and in 2020 he helmed the documentary Beastie Boys Story.

Jonze was heavily involved in the TV channel Viceland, which began airing in 2016. In addition to cofounding the network—which focused on documentary programs aimed at millennials—he served as copresident and creative director.