Mike White (filmmaker)

Michael Christopher White (born June 28, 1970) is an American filmmaker and actor. He created, writes, and directs the ongoing HBO satirical comedy anthology series '' The White Lotus'', for which he has won three Primetime Emmy Awards.

White also won an Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for the 2000 film ''Chuck & Buck'', which he wrote and starred in. He has written the screenplays for films such as ''School of Rock'' (2003) and has directed several films that he has written, such as '' Brad's Status'' (2017). White was a co-creator, executive producer, writer, director and actor on the HBO series '' Enlightened''. He is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of ''The Amazing Race'' and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on '' Survivor: David vs. Goliath''.

Early life

White was born in Pasadena, California. He is the son of Lyla Lee (née Loehr), a fundraising executive, and former executive director of the Pasadena Playhouse, and James Melville "Mel" White, a former speechwriter and ghostwriter for Religious Right figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. He came out as bisexual in 1994.Steve Inskeep
"Religion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry Falwell"
NPR, June 30, 2006. Due to his father's religious background, White grew up in a modest household in a conservative Christian community. He attended Polytechnic School which he thought was a "very conservative country-club school". Later he went to Wesleyan University, where he met writing partner, Zak Penn. Penn convinced him to move back to Los Angeles, and helped him to get work soon after graduating.

Career

Although White and Penn's writing partnership ended a few years later due to their different sensibilities, they remained on good terms, and White credits Penn with getting him into Hollywood's social circles. White was a writer and producer on ''Dawson's Creek'' and '' Freaks and Geeks'' and wrote and acted in the films ''Chuck & Buck'', '' The Good Girl'', '' Orange County'', ''School of Rock'' and '' Nacho Libre''. He also had a role in the 2004 remake of '' The Stepford Wives'', and the 2008 film '' Smother''. ''Chuck & Buck'', in which White portrayed a manchild who stalks his childhood friend, was named the best film of 2000 by ''Entertainment Weekly''. In an interview with ''The New York Times'', Jeff Bridges called White's turn in ''Chuck & Buck'' "the performance of the decade".

He frequently collaborates with actor–writer Jack Black on films. Together they formed the production company Black and White, which closed in 2006. White is not a fan of classic rock, but he wrote ''School of Rock'' specifically so Black could perform his own favorite rock music.

White made his directorial debut with the self-penned '' Year of the Dog'' at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. He was a member of the US Dramatic Jury at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Laura Dern brought White into a project with HBO which became the series '' Enlightened'' that premiered on October 10, 2011. Dern's character, Amy Jellicoe, goes to a Hawaiian retreat after her professional life publicly implodes, and is introduced to meditation. White himself had suffered an on-the-job meltdown while running an earlier television series, and incorporated elements of that experience, as well as his own exploration of Buddhist meditation, into the new series' plot. White wrote the pilot and all the episodes in the first and second seasons."HBO's 'Enlightened' Take On Modern Meditation"
''Fresh Air'' interview with Dern and White on NPR, October 10, 2011. Retrieved October 10, 2011.

White is a credited writer on '' The Emoji Movie''; he spent three weeks with the film's screenwriters and helped with the structure of the script. For this project he received a Golden Raspberry Award. He wrote and directed the 2017 film '' Brad's Status.''

In 2021, White created, wrote, and directed '' The White Lotus'', a satirical limited series for HBO, after being approached by HBO during the COVID-19 pandemic for ideas. HBO went on to greenlight two more seasons, which have different locations and casts and very little continuity between them. White has brought back three actors over the course of the series: Jennifer Coolidge, Natasha Rothwell, and Jon Gries. The concept for the series was "partly inspired" by White's work on an earlier proposed series which was never picked up by any network: ''The Tears of St. Patsy'', which would have featured "Coolidge as a frustrated actor navigating a dangerous world". In 2023, White alluded to this earlier setback when he won a Golden Globe for ''The White Lotus'' and said: "Everybody passed. I know ''you'' all passed".

In February 2022, it was announced White would write two upcoming animated films for Universal Pictures and Illumination: the original comedy ''Migration'', released on December 22, 2023, and the fourth installment in the '' Despicable Me'' franchise, which was released on July 3, 2024.

Meanwhile, White continued to work on the third season of ''The White Lotus'', whose release was delayed to 2025 by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. As of March 2025, ''The White Lotus'' was averaging millions of viewers per episode. It became "the biggest hit" of White's career, drawing comparisons to the best shows of the prestige television era of the 2010s. About finding his greatest success in his mid-fifties, White compared himself to a surfer waiting for a wave who is just about to swim in: "And then I catch a wave? I'm definitely going to ride this wave".

''The Amazing Race''

White appeared on the fourteenth season of ''The Amazing Race'' along with his father Mel. They lasted for seven legs before being eliminated in sixth place in Phuket, Thailand. Mel and Mike returned to compete in '' The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business'', where they were the second team eliminated in Japan after they both developed hypothermia. Both times, he ended up stuck on the island of Ko Samui, which was used by the show as its elimination station, and because of those unhappy memories, he was reluctant at first to return there to film the third season of ''The White Lotus''.

''Survivor''

White was a contestant on '' Survivor: David vs. Goliath'', as a member of the Goliath tribe, then to reshuffled Jabeni tribe and the merged Kalokalo tribe. He made it to Day 39 and received three jury votes, finishing in second place behind the winner, Nick Wilson.

White said he had been a big fan of the show, and because of his connections had developed a friendship with the show's host Jeff Probst, providing the host suggestions towards improving the show. For instance, Probst stated that it was White who discouraged him from bringing back Redemption Island for '' Survivor: San Juan del Sur''. At some point White decided to start trying out to be a participant of the show, but he failed to be picked over what he believed was a concern of having "sloppy seconds" from other reality television programs. White noted that once he was selected, he had had no other conversations with Probst until the game was concluded.

Several of White's fellow ''Survivor'' players have appeared in cameos on ''The White Lotus'', including Alec Merlino (season 1), Angelina Keeley and Kara Kay (season 2), and Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux (season 3).

In 2025, White was announced as a contestant on ''Survivor: In the Hands of the Fans'', the fiftieth season of the show.

Personal life

White is a vegan and lives in Santa Monica with his partner, Josh. He also owns a house in Kauai. He is openly bisexual. In a 2025 interview with ''The New Yorker'', White said that his relationship had fallen apart due to ''The White Lotus'' taking over his schedule.

Filmography

Films

Acting credits

Television

Acting credits

Non-acting credits

Awards and nominations

* Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (Critics Choice Award) for Best Song: ''School of Rock''
* Deauville Film Festival (Acting Prize): ''Chuck & Buck''
* Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature - Under $500,000: ''Chuck & Buck''
* Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay: ''The Good Girl''
* Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards (Sierra Award) for Best Song: ''School of Rock''
* Nominated – Golden Satellite Award for Best Screenplay, Original: ''The Good Girl''
* Seattle International Film Festival (New American Cinema Award) for Best Writer: ''Chuck & Buck''
* Golden Raspberry Award (Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay): ''The Emoji Movie''
* Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special: ''The White Lotus''
* Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special: ''The White Lotus''
* Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series: ''The White Lotus''
* Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: ''The White Lotus''
* Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: ''The White Lotus''
* Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series: ''The White Lotus''

References

External links

*
*

July 2000 article about White
from ''The Village Voice''

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Mike
1970 births
20th-century American LGBTQ people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American LGBTQ people
21st-century American male actors
American bisexual male actors
American bisexual writers
American film producers
American LGBTQ film directors
American LGBTQ screenwriters
American male film actors
American male screenwriters
American male television actors
American male television writers
American male video game actors
American male voice actors
American soap opera writers
Bisexual male writers
Bisexual screenwriters
Illumination (company) people
Independent Spirit Award winners
LGBTQ people from California
LGBTQ television directors
Living people
Male actors from Pasadena, California
Participants in American reality television series
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Sony Pictures Animation people
Survivor (franchise) contestants
Television producers from California
Television writers from California
Wesleyan University alumni
The White Lotus
Writers from Pasadena, California
Writers Guild of America Award winners