Rian Johnson
Sign in to saveAlso known as Rian Craig Johnson
Rian Craig Johnson 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. Going on to make 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 the Knives Out film series (2019–present), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.
OverviewAI-generated
Rian Craig Johnson is an American film director, screenwriter, writer, and film editor. Born in Silver Spring in 1973, he is a member of the Writers Guild of America West. He was educated at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and has been active in his profession since 2005.
His notable works include the films *Looper*, *Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi*, and *Knives Out*. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, and an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Additionally, he has received the Directors Guild of America Award and was recognized in the Time 100 collection.
Johnson speaks English and plays the banjo. He is the author of two works, with *Star Wars* listed among his top works.
Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 2
Top works
- Star wars
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
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…
Known for
- Netflix Tudum 2025 — Self2025
- Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames — Self2024
- The Space Western of the Southwest2023
- Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre — Self2023
- Scream — Party Guest (voice) (uncredited)2022
- Directors on Directors — Self2021
- The Force of Sound — Self2018
- The Director and the Jedi — Self2018
- Balance of the Force — Self2018
- The Last Jedi: Meet the Porgs2018
via TMDB
Wikipedia views (30d)
43,757 totalvia Wikimedia Pageviews API
Key facts
- Born
- Rian Craig Johnson , ( 1973-12-17 ) December 17, 1973 (age 52) , Silver Spring, Maryland , U.S.
- Alma mater
- University of Southern California
- Occupations
- Director producer writer
- Years active
- 1990–present
- Known for
- Brick (2005) Looper (2012) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) Knives Out trilogy (2019–2025) Poker Face (2023–2025)
- Spouse
- Karina Longworth ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. December 2018</span>"}]]}'>2018 )
- Relatives
- Nathan Johnson (cousin)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Craig
- Family name
- Johnson
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Silver Spring
- Occupation
- film producer
- Educated at
- USC School of Cinematic Arts
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Award
- Time 100
- Notable work
- Knives Out
- Instrument
- banjo
- Official website
- www.rian-johnson.com
- Image
- Rian Johnson by Gage Skidmore (cropped).jpg
- Height
- 1.66
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Rian Johnson
- date of birth
- 1973-12-17
- birth name
- Rian Craig Johnson
- start of work period
- 2005-00-00
- related category
- Category:Films directed by Rian Johnson
- social media followers
- 1066827
- different from
- Ryan Johnson
- nominated for
- Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
- member of
- Writers Guild of America West
- name in native language
- Rian Johnson
Sources (13)
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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. Going on to make 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 the Knives Out film series (2019–present), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Additionally, Johnson is known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), namely "Ozymandias", "Fly", and "Fifty-One"; for the last, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series in 2013. He created the murder mystery series Poker Face for Peacock starring Natasha Lyonne. Johnson is known for his longstanding collaboration with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has appeared in all of his feature films to date in varying capacity. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Rian Johnson” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.