Brian McGinn (born December 10, 1984) is an American TV and film director, writer, producer and showrunner.

Life and career

Brian McGinn was born in Palo Alto, California, on December 10, 1984. His mother was an art history librarian and his father an ethics and technology professor from

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

. He attended

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School (commonly referred to locally as "Paly") is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two high schools in the district, the ...

and

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, where he got in 2007 a degree in English and a certificate in the Film/Video/Digital Program. His first directing, producing and writing credits were on the short films ''Llamas for Ken'' (2007) and ''The Frozen City'' (2008) -which received an honorable mention at the 2009 Cleveland International Film Festival- and ''Carry'' (2009). Between 2011 and 2014 he directed a series viral videos for the comedy video website and film and television production company

Funny or Die Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staf ...

starring

Dave Franco David John Franco (born June 12, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He began his career with small roles in films such as '' Superbad'' (2007) and '' Charlie St. Cloud'' (2010). Following a starring role in the final season of the comed ...

Christopher Mintz-Plasse Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse (; born June 20, 1989) is an American actor primarily known for his debut role as Fogell/McLovin in '' Superbad'' (2007) and Chris D'Amico/Red Mist in the ''Kick-Ass'' franchise. Early life Christopher Mintz- ...

and

Alison Brie Alison Brie Schermerhorn (born December 29, 1982) is an American actress, writer, and producer. She earned recognition for playing Trudy Campbell in the drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), and had her Breakthrough role, breakthrough starring ...

as well as Funny or Die’s

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

2015 special ''Ferrell Takes The Field'' starring

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for his leading man roles in comedy films and for his work as a television producer. Ferrell received various accolades, including ...

. In 2011, he codirected with Vanessa Roth the documentary film ''

American Teacher ''American Teacher'' is a 2011 documentary film co-directed by Vanessa Roth and Brian McGinn and produced by The Teacher Salary Project. It follows the format of the book ''Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’ ...

'' and in 2012 he wrote and directed ''The Record Breaker'', a short film about

Ashrita Furman Ashrita Furman (born Keith Furman, September 16, 1954) is a ''Guinness World Records'' record-breaker. As of 2017, Furman has set more than 600 official Guinness Records and currently holds over 200 records, thus holding the Guinness world record ...

, the man who has the most

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

of all time. The documentary won awards at the

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is an annual non-fiction film festival held in Missoula, Montana each February. The event showcases documentary films from around the world. The festival first began in 2003 as a seven-day event. It is now a ten- ...

, the

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema founded by Nancy Buirski, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo editor of ''The New York Times'' and documentary filmma ...

, the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the

Cleveland International Film Festival The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. CIFF is the largest film festival in Ohio and among the longest-running in the United States. The festival is held at Playhouse Square, the lar ...

and the

New Orleans Film Festival The New Orleans Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the nonprofit organization New Orleans Film Society, a film society founded in 1989. The festival has been held since the society's inception. The festival takes place in mid-O ...

. Since 2015 he is one of the executive producers and directors of Netflix’s documentary series ''

Chef’s Table ''Chef's Table'' is an American documentary series created by David Gelb', which premiered on video streaming service Netflix on April 26, 2015. The series takes viewers inside both the lives and kitchens of a variety of acclaimed and successful ...

'', which gave him three nominations to the

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

. He got other two Emmy nominations for the Netflix documentary ''

Amanda Knox Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American author, activist, and journalist. She spent almost four years incarcerated in Italy after her wrongful conviction in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a fellow exchange student, with w ...

'', which he has produced, written and directed. Along with

David Gelb David Gelb (born October 16, 1983) is an American director of film and television. He is most known for his documentary work on the subject of food and cuisine, including the 2011 film '' Jiro Dreams of Sushi'', the Netflix series '' Chef's T ...

, his partner in the production company Supper Club with Jason Sterman, McGinn is one of the executive producers of the Netflix series ''

Street Food Street food is food sold by a Hawker (trade), hawker or vendor on a street or at another public place, such as a market, fair, or park. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumption ...

''. In 2019 he produced the film ''Machine'' –a documentary about

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

– and in 2020 he produced the Netflix show ''

Trial By Media Trial by media is a phrase popular in the late 20th century and early 21st century to describe the impact of television and newspaper coverage on a person's reputation by creating a widespread perception of guilt or innocence before, or after, a ...

'', where he also directed a chapter. As executive producer, he was behind several

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

original documentaries such as '' Marvel's 616, People & Places'' –a revival of a show originally aired in the ‘50s and ‘60s-, '' A Spark Story'', ''More Than Robots'' and ''Earthkeepers''. He also was the producer of the Disney+ documentary films ''Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return'', ''Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2'' ''U'' and '' Wolfgang''. He is also the writer of the latter film about the chef

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian chef and restaurateur. Early life Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname of his stepfather, Jos ...

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGinn, Brian 1984 births Living people Film directors from California Film producers from California Screenwriters from California American documentary filmmakers