Todd Phillips

116
Todd Phillips bigraphy, stories - Film

Todd Phillips : biography

December 20, 1970 –

Todd Phillips (born Todd Bunzl on December 20, 1970) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for writing and directing Road Trip, Old School, The Hangover trilogy, and Due Date. He also produced the 2012 black comedy film Project X. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing the story for the 2006 film Borat.

Filmography

Year Title Director Producer Writer Actor
1994 Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies
1998 Frat House
2000 Road Trip
Bittersweet Motel
2003 Old School
2004 Starsky & Hutch
2006 School for Scoundrels
2009 The Hangover
2010 Due Date
2011 The Hangover Part II
2012 Project X
2013 The Hangover Part III

Early life

Phillips was born and raised in New York, and attended New York University Film School, but dropped out in order to focus on completing his first film, the feature-length documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, about the life and death of the notoriously controversial punk rocker GG Allin. Around this time, he worked at Kim’s Video and Music. He also appeared as one of the drivers in the first seasons of Taxicab Confessions on HBO. In an NY Times profile, Phillips claims to have gotten in trouble for shoplifting as a young man. Phillips is also second cousins with Richard Silver the wealthy teenager who swindled his family heirlooms.

Career

Director and writer

His first film was the feature-length documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, about the life and death of controversial punk rocker GG Allin. Phillips made the film while a junior at NYU and it went on to become one of the biggest grossing student films at the time, even getting a limited theatrical release. at SuicideGirls Phillips followed up Junkies with Frat House, a documentary about college fraternities that he produced and directed with then-partner Andrew Gurland. Frat House premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary features. interview at It was produced by HBO, but never aired on its channel because many of the film’s participants claimed they were paid to re-enact their activities. It was never proven either way.

Phillips’ documentary film Bittersweet Motel centered on the jam band Phish. It covered the band’s summer and fall 1997 tours, plus footage from their 1998 spring tour of Europe. The documentary ends at The Great Went, a two-day festival held in upstate Maine which attracted 70,000 people. While at Sundance with Frat House, Phillips met director-producer Ivan Reitman, which led to Phillips writing and directing his comedy films, Road Trip and Old School, for Reitmans’ Montecito Picture Company.

Phillips also wrote and directed the 2004 film Starsky & Hutch starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, as well as the 2006 film School for Scoundrels, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder. In 2005, Details Magazine cited Judd Apatow, Adam McKay and Phillips as "The Frat Pack". He worked on Borat (2006); however, he resigned his position as director of the movie in early 2005, due to creative differences. Nevertheless, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his role in fashioning the story.