John Wilson is an American documentary filmmaker. He created ''

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. O ...

,'' 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 premium television network, 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 ba ...

Early life and education

Wilson was born in

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

, and grew up on Long Island. He became interested in film as a teenager when his father gave him a movie camera. Wilson cites

Les Blank Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians. Life and career Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now ...

and Bruce Brown as influences. Shortly after graduating from high school, Wilson completed a feature film called ''Jingle Berry''. Wilson added the reference to ''Jingle Berry'' to his own

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...

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 research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...

, Wilson made a short documentary, ''Looner,'' about a balloon fetish community. At Binghamton, Wilson joined an a cappella 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 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

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, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

asked Wilson to make a documentary about 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 ...

. These works caught the attention of comedian and writer

Nathan Fielder Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating, directing, and starring in the Comedy Central parody reality show ''Nathan for You'' (2013– ...

, and the two eventually started collaborating after meeting in 2018. In October 2020, ''

'' premiered on HBO. The show is executive produced by Fielder, Michael Koman and Clark Reinking. On December 9, 2020, HBO ordered a second season, which premiered on 26 November 2021.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, John 1986 births Living people American documentary film directors Film directors from New York City Binghamton University alumni