Chris Columbus
, b. 1958
Chris Columbus is an American film director, screen writer and producer. A graduate of the prestigious New York University Film and Television School his career was launched when Steven Spielberg purchased his screenplay for Gremlins. Columbus went on to write two further screenplays for Spielberg (The Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes) before progressing to directing. In a thirty-four year career, despite little acknowledgement in the form of awards, his films have been great commercial and often cult successes. His previous films demonstrate Columbus is deft at using the fantastical to explore family dynamics, and in particular the parent-child relationship. A common motif is of adults being inept and the children saving the day. A further common theme of his work is exploring the sense of home and community. Examples of his work are: The Goonies, Gremlins, Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and more recently the Harry Potter Films. For the first two in the series Columbus holds directing credentials, and he has acted as a producer for the rest of the series. Much of his work has involved working on adaptations from literary sources.
Bio prepared by Kimberly MacNeill, University of Roehampton, macneilk@roehampton.ac.uk
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