Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze has had an incredibly active role within the film industry, either writing, acting, directing or producing over 41 films.  Jonze is most notable for his works as a director and producer. Jonze began his directing career with ‘Being John Malkovich’ which earned him his first Academy Award nomination in 1999.  In 2000 Jonze found the franchise ‘Jackass’ which became a leading film and television franchise creating millions by filming pre-planned stunts and pranks. Jonze went on to make four ‘Jackass’ films which thrived at the Box Office. In 2002 he directed and featured in Adaptation which starred Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper. Copper won both and Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his performance in Adaptation and Jonze earned himself a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.  In 2009 Jonze directed and co wrote the children's fantasy drama ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. In 2013 Jonze created his most successful film, ‘Her’. ‘Her’ received three Academy Award nomitions, including Best Original Screen which Spike Jonze won. Jonze also won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for ‘Her’.

Spike Jonze has directed 58 music videos since his musical directory debut in 1992 with ‘Hush’ by Wax.  Spike throughout his career has been hired by worldwide leading artists to direct and produce their music videos. In 2002 Jonze was awarded his first Grammy award for Best Short Form Music Video owing to his innovative creation of Fatboy Slim’s ‘Weapon of Choice’, which featured Academy Award winner Christopher Walken dancing in an empty hotel. His most recent and arguably most famous music videos are three he co produced and directed with Kanye West. Their first collaboration came in 2008 with ‘Flashing Lights’ which went platinum with over one million sales.  Their second collaboration came in 2011 with ‘Otis’ by Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, which went double platinum with over two million sales. Their third and most recent collaboration came in 2015 with ‘Only One’  by Kanye West featuring Paul McCartney which rose to number one in the UK R&B charts.  Other notable works of his are the music video for ‘Da Funk’ by Daft Punk in 1997, ‘Get Back’ by Ludacris in 2004  and ‘Dope’ by Lady Gaga in 2013.

Spike Jonze has produced nine television adverts throughout his career. He has been hired by some of the most prestigious companies world wide, such as Nike, Adidas, Ikea, Gap, Levi’s, Nissan and Apple. This commercial directory debut came in 1999, after creating the ‘Moring After’ advert for Nike. Three years later in 2002 following his success of Adaptation, he was hired by Levi to create the ‘Crazy Legs’ commercial. Which became the eight most awarded advert in 2002. In 2005 Adidas hired Jonze to create  their ‘Hello Tomorrow’ advert. Later in 2008 Spike Jonze  create the ‘Frontier’ advert for Nissan. However in 2018, he arguably made his most famous and successful advert ‘Welcome Home’ for Apple. For Jonze his was an opportunity for him to create  an advert for Apple with him adding his innovative touch too. ‘Welcome Home’ was the an official advert promoting Apple HomePod which was released on 9th February 2018.

Spike Jonze started his career within filmmaking by directing and producing skateboarding videos in the early 1990’s.  Jonze’s first ever video was ‘Video Days’ which was created in 1991. Jonze went onto create seven more skateboarding videos up until 2008 with ‘The Final Flare!’. His two most notable skateboarding videos were ‘Yeah Right’ created in 2002 and ‘Fully Flared’ created in 2007. ‘Yeah Right’ contains a infamous cameo by Owen Wilson and the music for the both films was produced by Sam Spiegel, Jonze’s brother.

Spike Jonze in 2017 wrote and directed his first play, ‘Changers: A Dance Story’.