Jump to content

Duke Johnson (director)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Niggle1892 (talk | contribs) at 11:13, 23 October 2022 (Early life: Editing for style). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Duke Johnson
Duke Johnson at the 2015 Fantastic Fest
Born (1979-03-20) March 20, 1979 (age 45)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew York University, AFI Conservatory
Occupation(s)Director, Writer, Producer
Years active2000–present
SpouseSoyoung Na

Duke Johnson is an American film director who specializes in stop-motion animation.[1] He currently serves as a director and junior partner for Dino Stamatopoulos's animation production studio Starburns Industries in Burbank, California.[2][3]

Early life

Johnson was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended St. John Vianney High School. Between his second and third years at St John Vianney, he attended a summer film course at Columbia College Chicago.[4][5] He graduated from the film school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he spent a semester studying animation in Prague.[6] After graduating, he spent three years working as a waiter in a New York restaurant before moving to Los Angeles, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory in 2006.[5][7] At AFI, he directed his student film Marrying God, for which he won 8 awards for best student film or best short film.[8]

Career

Johnson has been nominated for Annie Awards in 2011 and 2012 for directing stop-motion episodes of shows such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and Community.[8][9] In 2016, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in the 88th Academy Awards for co-directing the stop-motion comedy-drama film Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman.[10][11]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2003 Just an American Boy No No No Documentary; cinematographer
2006 Marrying God Yes No No Short film
2015 Anomalisa Yes No Yes Co-directed with Charlie Kaufman
2017 Moonwrapped No No Yes Short film
2020 I'm Thinking of Ending Things No No No Producer of animation
TBA The Actor Yes Yes Yes Pre-production

Television

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
2008 Moral Orel Yes No No Episode: "Help"
2010 Community Yes No No Episode: "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
2010–2012 Mary Shelley's Frankenhole Yes Yes Yes Also matte painter
2012 Beforel Orel: Trust Yes No Yes Television special; also animator
2020 Cosmos: Possible Worlds Yes No No Supervising animation director
Episode: "Vavilov"

References

  1. ^ Rooney, David (5 September 2015). "Charlie Kaufman's 'Anomalisa': Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. ^ "Team". Starburns Industries. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  3. ^ Tapley, Kristopher (8 September 2015). "Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson On Passion Project 'Anomalisa'". Variety. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. ^ Wilson, Calvin. "Charlie Kaufman teams up with St. Louis native Duke Johnson for 'Anomalisa'". stltoday.com. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  5. ^ a b Debruge, Peter (29 December 2015). "10 Directors to Watch: How Duke Johnson Came to Co-Direct Charlie Kaufman's 'Anomalisa'". Yahoo! Movies. yahoo.com. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  6. ^ Peterson, Deb (1 December 2010). "St. Louis' Duke Johnson is directing an NBC Christmas show". stltoday.com. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  7. ^ "AFI CONSERVATORY CONTINUES WINNING STREAK WITH ALUM DUKE JOHNSON'S GRAND JURY PRIZE WIN AT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL" (Press release). American Film Institute. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  8. ^ a b Duke Johnson at IMDb
  9. ^ Robinson, Tasha (18 January 2016). "Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson talk about the technical and emotional work behind Anomalisa". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  10. ^ "2016 Nominees". Oscars.org - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Nominations Announced for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2016". bafta.org. Retrieved 14 January 2016.