Chris Weitz

Chris Weitz


Chris Weitz was born in New York City, the son of actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/fashion designer John Weitz (born Hans Werner Weitz). His brother is filmmaker Paul Weitz. He is the grandson of agent Paul Kohner and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side. His grandmother, Lupita, starred in SANTA, Mexico's first talkie, in 1932.
Weitz was educated at the Allen-Stevenson School in New York and St Paul's School in London and went on to graduate with a B.A. and M.A. English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Weitz began his film career as a co-writer, along with his brother Paul, of the 1998 animated film ANTZ. In 1999, he and Paul directed and produced AMERICAN PIE, which became a major box office success. In 2002 the brothers co-wrote and directed ABOUT A BOY, which earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.  
He went on to direct several other feature films, including the 2007 adaptation of Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy novel, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, and the second film installment in the Twilight series, NEW MOON. His last feature was the 2011 film A BETTER LIFE, which garnered an Award nomination for its lead actor, Demián Bichir.

More recently, Weitz has written several feature films, including CINDERELLA, for Disney, and ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, for Lucasfilm. His young adult novel trilogy, THE YOUNG WORLD, has been published by Little Brown, beginning in 2014.

He has produced a number of films through his and Paul’s company Depth of Field, including Tom Ford’s A SINGLE MAN and Peter Sollett’s NICK AND NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST. Their most recent is the filmmaker Kogonada’s feature debut, COLUMBUS, starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. Later this year, production will begin on the Disney live-action film PINOCCHIO from director Paul King; Weitz wrote the script and will produce through Depth of Field.
Weitz most recently driected the film FINALE starring Oscar Isaac and Sir Ben Kingsley. 

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.
Share by: