David Fincher

His father, Howard Kelly "Jack" Fincher (1930–2003), was an author from Oklahoma who worked as a reporter and bureau chief for Life magazine.

When Fincher was two years old, the family moved to San Anselmo, California, where he counted filmmaker George Lucas among his neighbors.

He became fascinated with filmmaking at the age of eight and began making films on an 8mm camera.

David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director.

His films, most of which are psychological thrillers, have collectively grossed over $2.1 billion worldwide and have received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards for Best Director nominations for him.

He has also received four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

David Andrew Leo Fincher was born in Denver on August 28, 1962.

His mother, Claire Mae (née Boettcher), was a mental health nurse from South Dakota who worked in drug addiction programs.

Gaining further experience, he became a visual effects producer, working on the animated Twice Upon a Time (1983) with George Lucas.

He was hired by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in 1983 as an assistant cameraman and matte photographer and worked on Return of the Jedi (1983) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).

In 1984, he left ILM to direct a television commercial for the American Cancer Society that depicted a fetus smoking a cigarette.

Starting in 1984, Fincher began his foray into music videos.

He directed videos for various artists including singer-songwriters Rick Springfield, Don Henley, Martha Davis, Paula Abdul, rock band the Outfield, and R&B singer Jermaine Stewart.

This quickly brought Fincher to the attention of producers in Los Angeles, and he was soon given the opportunity to direct Rick Springfield's 1985 documentary, The Beat of the Live Drum.

Set on a directing career, Fincher co-founded production company Propaganda Films and started directing commercials and music videos.

Other directors such as Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Alex Proyas, Paul Rachman, Mark Romanek, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski also honed their skills at Propaganda Films before moving on to feature films.

Fincher directed TV commercials for many companies including Levi's, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Revlon, Sony, Coca-Cola and Chanel, although he loathed doing them.

Fincher co-founded the production company Propaganda Films in 1986.

He directed numerous music videos for the company, including Madonna's "Express Yourself" in 1989 and "Vogue" in 1990, both of which won him the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction.

He made his feature film debut with Alien 3 (1992) and gained his breakthrough with Seven (1995).

He received two Grammy Awards for Best Music Video for "Love Is Strong" (1994) by the Rolling Stones and "Suit & Tie" (2013) by Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z.

He has since directed The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014), and The Killer (2023).

He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for the dramas The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), and Mank (2020).

In a 2012 interview, he said:

I was eight years old and I saw a documentary on the making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It had never occurred to me that movies didn't take place in real time.

I knew that they were fake, I knew that the people were acting, but it had never occurred to me that it could take [...] four months to make a movie!

It showed the entire company with all these rental horses and moving trailers to shoot a scene on top of a train.

They would hire somebody who looked like Robert Redford to jump onto the train.

It never occurred to me that there were hours between each of these shots.

The actual circus of it was invisible, as it should be, but in seeing that I became obsessed with the idea of "How?"

It was the ultimate magic trick.

The notion that 24 still photographs are shown in such quick succession that movement is imparted from itwow!

And I thought that there would never be anything that would be as interesting as that to do with the rest of my life.

As a teenager, Fincher moved to Ashland, Oregon, where he attended Ashland High School.

He directed plays and designed sets and lighting after school, was a non-union projectionist at Varsity Theatre, and worked as a production assistant at the KOBI news station in Medford.

He supported himself by working as a busboy, dishwasher, and fry cook.

While establishing himself in the film industry, Fincher was employed at John Korty's studio as a production head.

In television, Fincher has served as an executive producer and director for the Netflix series House of Cards (2013–2018) and Mindhunter (2017–2019), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the pilot episode of the former.

He also executive produced and co-created the Netflix animated series Love, Death & Robots (2019–present) which received three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program.