Shaun of the Dead Crew - Edgar Wright

Edgar Howard Wright, known to his close friends as “EBall,” was born April 18th, 1974, in Poole, Dorset, England, UK. The now-famous British director was inspired by the works of such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and Sam Raimi and decided early on what he wanted to do for a living. In fact, he was shooting movies with his friends by the age of 14.

His very first project was a Super8 short entitled Rolf Harris Saves the World, and it was filmed with 15 of his school classmates. To fund these films, Edgar took a job as a shelf-stacker at a local Gateway store, where he worked off and on for 5 years.

After winning a Comic Relief short film competition, Edgar received a video camera and started making more and more ambitious projects. The short films evolved into 30 minute projects, and then into hour-long affairs.Edgar made a western and then followed it up with a cop movie boasting a cast of over 70. The year was 1993, and he was 19 years old (and still working at Gateway). Shortly after, Edgar moved to Bournemouth and enrolled in a film course at an art college.

His next project was upgraded to 16mm, and, at age 20, he moved to London to edit the film at the world-famous Pinewood Studios. The film, entitled A Fistful of Fingers, was shown at one London cinema. By this time, Edgar was 21 and completely broke.

His first official directing gig came after approaching comic Matt Lucas about being in a potential project. After seeing Edgar’s film, Lucas invited a friend (fellow comedian David Walliams) to view it, and the duo invited Edgar to direct a sketch show which they were about to film for the BBC called Mash and Peas.

During the filming of the show, Edgar would work with Jessica Stevenson for the first time. This would be especially important in the coming years of Edgar’s career.

In 1997, he did a show called Asylum, once again working with Jessica Stevenson. He also worked with Simon Pegg for the first time. As fate would have it, Stevenson and Pegg were working on scripts for a show of their own entitled Spaced. The pair asked Edgar to direct it, and he even helped them develop the early scripts.

Spaced was a big hit, garnering nominations for 2 BAFTA awards, an International Emmy, and countless others. It went on to develop an even larger following after its release on DVD.

One episode of Spaced featured the lead character getting trapped inside the PlayStation zombie game Resident Evil. This sparked an idea in the heads of Wright and Pegg, and the two decided to try their hand at making a zombie movie (which Wright co-wrote with Pegg).

The film became Shaun of the Dead and was a smash hit, both critically and commercially. It was nominated for 2 BAFTA awards, and won the Empire’s Best British Film, Best Screenplay at The British Independent Film Awards, and Best Horror from The Academy of Science Fiction/Fantasy/and Horror Films.

Edgar and Simon were even invited by zombie legend George Romero to make a cameo in his latest undead film, Land of the Dead. They also received praise from such giants as Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson, Stephen King, and Sam Raimi.

Wright has several projects in the works, including a cop film with Simon Pegg entitled Hot Fuzz. He will also be directing a fake trailer insert for the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez horror film Grindhouse, and he has signed on to bring the superhero Ant-Man to the big screen.