Charles Malcolm McDowell (born July 10, 1983) is an American film director and screenwriter. He is most known for his film '' The One I Love'' (2014).

Early life

McDowell was born on July 10, 1983, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to English actor

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised i ...

and American actress

Mary Steenburgen Mary Nell Steenburgen (; born February 8, 1953) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in 1978 Western comedy film '' Goin ...

. He has an older sister named Lilly (born January 22, 1981) and three younger half-brothers from his father's marriage to Kelley Kuhr. McDowell's stepfather is actor

Ted Danson Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'', for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. ...

, who married Steenburgen in 1995. Since 2014, McDowell has had a

running joke A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

at Steenburgen's expense, claiming on numerous occasions on social media that his mother is actually actress

Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...

Career

In 2011, McDowell's

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feed, @charliemcdowell, was described by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' as "one of the most hilarious Twitter feeds out there," and in 2013

Three Rivers Press Three Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprint ...

published McDowell's book, ''Dear Girls Above Me'', based on his Twitter feed. His debut film, '' The One I Love'', starring

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

and

Elisabeth Moss Elisabeth Singleton Moss (born July 24, 1982) is an American actor. She is known for her work in several television dramas, earning such accolades as two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, which led ''Vulture'' to name her the ...

had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

in January 2014, where shortly after it was acquired by

RADiUS-TWC The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob Weinstein, Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North ...

and released in August 2014. In 2015, McDowell directed

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced '' The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...

's untitled HBO series pilot. The project was not picked up by the network. McDowell's next film, '' The Discovery'', starred

Rooney Mara Patricia Rooney Mara ( ; born April 17, 1985) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, ...

Jason Segel Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom '' How I Met Your Mother'', as well as for his work with director and ...

, and

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Cec ...

. The film premiered at the

and was acquired by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

for a global release in 2017. In March 2017, filmmaker McDowell announced he was adapting author

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, perf ...

's novel '' Zero K'' as a limited series for FX with Noah Hawley and Scott Rudin producing. McDowell previously directed an episode of Hawley's television series ''

Legion Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army * Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...

'', also for FX. In 2019, McDowell directed the first and last episodes of the Showtime series '' On Becoming a God in Central Florida'' and also served as an executive producer. He also directed episodes of ''

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

'', ''

Dear White People ''Dear White People'' is a 2014 American satirical dark comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien. The film focuses on escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of ...

'', '' Tales from the Loop'', and ''

Dispatches from Elsewhere ''Dispatches from Elsewhere'' is an American drama television series created by and starring Jason Segel that premiered on March 1, 2020, on AMC. It is based on the documentary film '' The Institute'' about the alternate reality game The Jejune ...

''. His next film, ''Gilded Rage'', will be based on the infamous murder of investment banker Thomas Gilbert Sr.

Bill Skarsgård Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård (; born 9 August 1990) is a Swedish actor, producer, director, writer, voice actor, and model. He is best known for portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the supernatural horror films '' It'' (2017) and '' It ...

and

Christoph Waltz Christoph Waltz (; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian-German actor. Since 2009 he has been primarily active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Scree ...

are set to portray the character in different periods of his life. Lily Collins is also set to star in the film.

Personal life

McDowell dated

Emilia Clarke Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke (born 23 October 1986) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal as Daenerys Targaryen in ''Game of Thrones''. She has received various accolades, including an Empire Awards, Empire Award, a ...

from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, Charlie began a relationship with actress

Lily Collins Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is a British and American actress and model who is known for her work in several films, including ''Stuck in Love'' (2012), ''The English Teacher'' (2013), and '' Love, Rosie'' (2014), comedy ''Rules Do ...

, the daughter of English drummer and singer

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

. In September 2020, they announced their engagement. They were married on September 4, 2021, in

Dunton Hot Springs Dunton Hot Springs, also known as Dunton, Colorado (unincorporated), is a grouping of log buildings that sits at 8,600 feet on the West Fork of the Dolores River in the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern corner of Colorado. Dunton is north ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

Filmography

Film

References

External links

*
''Dear Girls Above Me''
(Google Books) * {{DEFAULTSORT:McDowell, Charlie 1983 births Living people AFI Conservatory alumni American male screenwriters American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent American people of Scottish descent American people of Welsh descent Film directors from Los Angeles Screenwriters from California Writers from Los Angeles