Seth Gordon is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and film editor. He has produced and directed both for film and television, including for PBS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Staff 1% for Development Fund. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival.
Life and career
Gordon grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He attended Yale University where he studied architecture until leaving in 1997 to teach high school for six months in the small village of Shimanyiro, Kenya. While there he helped secure United Nations financing to finish construction of a school, and began filming what would eventually become the documentary Building Shimanyiro. Upon returning to Yale, Gordon taught himself how to edit his footage on an Avid editing machine. Later, he helped shoot Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, and after working as cinematographer, editor and producer on various films, he gained prominence with his documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
Gordon directed the game company Zynga's "GagaVille" online film in 2010. He co-created and is an executive producer of the Fox television series Breaking In. He directed the 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses, but in August 2013 declined to direct the sequel, citing commitments to the television series The Goldbergs, on which he is an executive producer, and a planned remake of the film WarGames.
Gordon directed the pilot of Sneaky Pete for Amazon Studios, which he also produces with Bryan Cranston and David Shore. A season of episodes has been ordered by Amazon Studios and is currently in production.
In July 2015 it was announced that Gordon would direct a comedy version of Baywatch with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron attached to star.
Filmography
Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | New York Doll | Producer | nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in documentary at Sundance Film Festival in 2005. |
2005 | Cry Wolf | Editor, Associate Producer, Second Unit Director | |
2007 | The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters | Director | accepted to Slamdance and bought for distribution by Picturehouse. New Line Cinema bought the film's remake rights and plans to turn it in to a fiction film with Gordon directing. |
2008 | Four Christmases | Director | |
2010 | Freakonomics | Director and screenwriter | |
2011 | Horrible Bosses | Director | Gordon makes a cameo appearance in the film |
2011 | Undefeated | Producer | won the documentary Oscar in 2012 |
2013 | Identity Thief | Director | |
2015 | Pixels | Executive Producer | |
2017 | Baywatch | Director | Filming |
Television series
In 2009, Gordon developed and directed a video series focusing on the threat posed by cybercrime to Internet users, H*Commerce: The Business of Hacking You, sponsored by antivirus software company McAfee. Gordon has also directed various music videos and commercials, as well as an episode each of Modern Family and Community, two episodes of The Office, and multiple episodes of Parks and Recreation. He previously was a director and executive producer on NBC's Marry Me. Gordon is currently a director and executive producer on ABC's The Goldbergs.'