John Michael Wilson (born October 7, 1986) is an American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker. He is the creator and director of ''

How To with John Wilson ''How To with John Wilson'' is an American television comedy docuseries created by filmmaker John Wilson. The series, executive produced by Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman and Clark Reinking, was ordered by HBO. It premiered on October 23, 2020. ...

,'' a comedy-

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

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 ...

Early life and education

Wilson was born in

Astoria, Queens Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Queens, Long Island C ...

, and grew up on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. He became interested in film as a teenager when his father gave him a movie camera. Wilson cites Les Blank, George Kuchar, and Bruce Brown as influences. Shortly after graduating from high school, Wilson completed a feature film called ''Jingle Berry''. He added the reference to ''Jingle Berry'' to his own

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

page in season 2, episode 4 of ''

''. While attending

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

, Wilson made a short documentary, ''Looner'', about a balloon fetish community. At Binghamton, Wilson joined an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

singing group, the Binghamton Crosbys.

Career

In 2008, after graduating from college, Wilson worked for a private investigator. He has said this experience influenced his focus on the people and places of everyday life. In 2015, Wilson was asked to go on tour with

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

to make an original film about his performance. Titled ''Temporary Color'', the film has been called a "true crime concert doc about David Byrne and a pair of violent criminals". The next year,

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

asked Wilson to make a documentary about the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. These works caught the attention of comedian and writer Nathan Fielder, and the two started collaborating after meeting in 2018. In October 2020, Wilson's comedy docuseries ''

'' premiered on

. The series' second season premiered in November 2021, and its third and final season premiered in July 2023. The show is executive produced by Fielder, Michael Koman, and Clark Reinking. In the show, Wilson attempts to give advice while dealing with his own personal issues. The 25-minute episodes, framed as

tutorial In education, a tutorial is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete ...

s and filmed mainly on the streets of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, cover topics from

small talk Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed. In essence, it is polite and standard conversation about unimportant things. The phenomenon ...

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...

. Each episode is narrated in a second-person perspective, and features numerous shots edited together from hours of

B-roll In film and television production, B-roll, B roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. The term ''A-roll'', referring to main footage, has fallen out of use to some degree. Film and video produc ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, John 1986 births Living people American documentary film directors American television directors Film directors from New York City Binghamton University alumni People from Astoria, Queens