Rian Johnson

Director & actor · born 17 December 1973 · Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitioning to higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success. Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion. He returned to the mystery genre with Knives Out (2019) and its sequel Glass Onion (2022), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.

Additionally, Johnson is also known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), namely "Ozymandias," "Fly," and "Fifty-One"; for the latter, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing—Drama Series in 2013. He also created a murder mystery series titled Poker Face for Peacock with Natasha Lyonne. Johnson was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

Where to start: Knives Out (2019).