Gareth Edwards

GARETH EDWARDS

Date of Birth: June 1, 1975

Gareth Edwards was born and raised in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England to Welsh parents. Gareth knew at an early age that he wanted to be a film director, citing the Star Wars movies as one of his early influences. He names George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino as his favorite directors.

In 1996, Gareth graduated from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), formerly the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Gareth received a Master of Arts honorary degree from UCA in 2012.

He set up his own visual effects company, The Monkey Experiment Ltd., in 2003 and has produced special effects for and directed a number of BAFTA award-winning and Emmy-nominated TV shows. In 2005 he was named Broadcast Magazine's Young Talent of the Year. Later, Gareth directed the epic BBC drama Heroes and Villains: Attila the Hun, creating all the 250 visual effects by himself. In 2008 he won the SciFi Channel 48-hour film contest, where a movie had to be created start-to-finish in just two days, with his short Factory Farmed.

Gareth went on to write, direct and single-handedly create all the visual effects for his debut feature Monsters (2010), which won three British Independent Film Awards and was nominated for the 2011 Outstanding Debut BAFTA.

After the success of Monsters, in January 2011 Gareth received a phone call from Legendary Pictures producer Thomas Tull, who wanted him to direct the Hollywood major motion picture Godzilla (2014). The movie, released by Warner Bros., starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Bryan Cranston, David Strathairn and Ken Watanabe.

In May 2014, it was also announced that Gareth will direct two more Godzilla movies as a trilogy. In 2016, he directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first standalone Star Wars film.

Filmography:

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Godzilla (2014)
Monsters (2010)