Alex Ross Perry
American film director, screenwriter and actor

Alex Ross Perry

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American film director, screenwriter and actor
Gender:
Male
Birth:
14 July 1984(Bryn Mawr, USA)
Star sign:
Education:
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
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Biography

Introduction

Alex Ross Perry (born July 14, 1984) is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.

Early life

Perry was born to a Jewish family in 1984 and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where he worked on a local television news program during high school. After graduating, he moved to New York City to attend NYU. He graduated from NYU's film program in 2006. From 2005 to 2007, Perry worked at the East Village-based video store Kim's Video, where he met many of the cast and crew members who would later work on his films, including director of photography Sean Price Williams. He was influenced by Philip Roth, Vincent Gallo, Jerry Lewis, and Thomas Pynchon.

Career

Perry's first feature, Impolex, premiered in 2009. Made on a budget of $15,000and shot on 16mm film stock, the film is an absurdist comedy inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow. The film was released theatrically in 2011.

Perry's second feature, The Color Wheel, premiered at festivals in 2011. The film, a dark screwball comedy influenced by the work of Philip Roth, was co-written by Perry with Carlen Altman; the two also played the lead roles in the film. The film was named the best undistributed film of 2011 by the Indiewire and Village Voice polls, and placed 12th in a similar poll conducted by Film Comment. It was released theatrically on May 18, 2012.

Perry's next film, a comedy titled Listen Up Philip, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

In 2015, Perry's fourth directorial effort Queen of Earth, which stars Elisabeth Moss, Katherine Waterston, Patrick Fugit, Kentucker Audley, and Kate Lyn Sheil. It had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on February 7, 2015. and was released in a limited release and through video on demand on August 26, 2015. In April 2015, Disney hired Perry to write a live-action adaptation of the Winnie the Pooh franchise, with the resulting Christopher Robin released to theaters in August 2018. He also optioned Don DeLillo's The Names for a feature adaptation.

In 2017 he directed the music video for Aly & AJ's single "Take Me" and in 2019 also directed the music video for the single Church for the same band.

His films Golden Exits and Her Smell were released in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Personal life

In 2016, after nine years of dating, Perry married visual artist Anna Bak-Kvapil. Perry is a vegan.

Films

Year Name Director Writer Producer Editor Actor Role Notes
2009 Impolex Yes Yes Yes Yes Feature directorial debut
2010 Tiny Furniture Yes Ashlynn's Friend
2011 The Color Wheel Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Colin Co-writer (with Carlen Altman)
Co-producer (with Bob Byington)
2011 Happy Life Yes Donald
2011 Green Yes Phillip Roth expert
2012 Somebody Up There Likes Me Yes Pizza Customer #1
2013 The Sixth Year Yes Yes Yes Segment director: "Episode 5"
Additional screenplay material
Co-writer (with Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda)
2014 Listen Up Philip Yes Yes
2015 7 Chinese Brothers Yes Hats at Cars
2015 Queen of Earth Yes Yes Yes Co-producer (with Elisabeth Moss, Adam Piotrowicz and Joe Swanberg)
2015 Devil Town Yes Detective Ira Goldberg
2016 Joshy Yes Adam
2017 Golden Exits Yes Yes Yes Co-producer (with Joshua Blum, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Adam Piotrowicz and Katie Stern)
2018 Nostalgia Yes Yes Co-writer (with Mark Pellington)
2018 Christopher Robin Yes Co-screenwriter only (with Tom McCarthy and Allison Schroeder)
2018 Her Smell Yes Yes Yes Co-producer (with Elisabeth Moss, Matthew Perniciaro, Adam Piotrowicz and Michael Sherman)

Music videos

Title Year Artist(s)
"I Can Only Stare" 2016 Sleigh Bells
"Take Me" 2017 Aly & AJ
"Church" 2019 Aly & AJ
"Don't Go Changing" 2019 Aly & AJ