James Wan

Biography:

James Wan is an Australian filmmaker who was born on February 26, 1977. As the creator of The Conjuring Universe and co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises, he has mainly worked in the horror genre. At more than $2 billion, the latter is the highest-grossing horror franchise.  Wan is also the creator of Atomic Monster, a production firm for films and TV shows.

In 2004, Wan directed his first feature film, Saw. Commercial success was achieved by the Saw franchise, which brought in over $1 billion worldwide. After a spell of failure, Wan made a comeback with the Insidious series, of which he directed the first movie in 2010 and its follow-up in 2013. Wan directed the first Conjuring movie, which was a critical and financial triumph, in the same year as the second Insidious. In addition to producing later films in the franchise, he directed the second chapter in 2016.

Aside from horror, Wan directed the DC Extended Universe superhero movies Aquaman (2018) and its follow-up Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), as well as Furious 7 (2015), the seventh edition of the Fast & Furious franchise. Wan became the eighth director with two films to achieve the $1 billion mark with Furious 7 and Aquaman.  As of 2021, his films have made over $3.7 billion globally, placing him as the 16th highest-grossing director of all time.