Chris Joseph Columbus is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is the co-founder of 1492 Pictures, a film production company that has produced some of his films since 1995. In 2017, he launched ZAG Animation Studios, alongside Michael Barnathan, Haim Saban and Jeremy Zag. He currently lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
About Chris Columbus (filmmaker) in brief
Chris Joseph Columbus is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is the co-founder of 1492 Pictures, a film production company that has produced some of his films since 1995. In 2017, he launched ZAG Animation Studios, alongside Michael Barnathan, Haim Saban and Jeremy Zag. Columbus was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania and raised in Champion, Ohio, the only child born to Mary Irene, a factory worker, and Alex Michael Columbus, an aluminum plant worker and coal miner. In 1980, while at NYU, Columbus directed a short film entitled I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here that was later noticed by Steven Spielberg. He also wrote episodes for the animated series Galaxy High and received screenwriting credit for Little Nemo: in Slumberland. In the late 1980s, fellow filmmaker John Hughes approached Columbus to direct Home Alone, a comedy drama written by John Hughes, where eight-year old Kevin McCallister must defend his home from burglars. The film was a commercial failure and it also received mixed-to-negative reviews. Columbus then directed Heartbreak Hotel, which is a story about Elvis Presley being kidnapped and offering counsel and help to a small-town family. He then directed the fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and the 3D action comedy Pixels. In addition to directing, Columbus served as a producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the drama The Help.
He also directed the film adaptations of J. K. Rowling’s novels, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone and its sequel, HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets, which are his highest-grossing films to date. He currently lives in New York City with his wife and daughter, and works as a freelance writer and director. He has a son, a daughter, a son-in-law, and a step-son, all of whom he has worked with over the past 20 years. He was married to his wife, Jennifer, until she passed away in 2011. He now lives with his daughter in New Jersey and has two step-daughters, both of whom have also worked for him in the film industry. In 2012, he married his longtime girlfriend, actress and producer Jennifer Tisdall, who he met at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the early 1980s. In 2013, he had his first child, son, and daughter with wife Jennifer, who is also a screenwriter and producer. In 2014, he and his daughter started a company called Maiden Voyage Pictures, which he co-founded with her daughter, which has produced films including The Help, Pixels, and Percy Jackson and The Olympians. He previously worked as a writer for several teen comedies in the mid-1980s, including Adventures in Babysitting. He made his directorial debut with a teen adventure, Adventures in babysitting, which received mixed reviews from critics and was regarded as amediocre.
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