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Spike Jonze Biography
Director, actor, producer. Born Adam Spiegel, in 1969, in Rockville, Maryland. Related (on his father’s side) to the prosperous Spiegel family and an heir to its catalog fortune, he grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland with his mother and older sister (his parents divorced when he was still young). By the time he entered high school, he had adopted the name Spike Jonze and was participating in competitive skateboarding and BMX bicycling.
Immediately after his graduation from high school, the 17-year-old Jonze moved to Los Angeles and began working as an editorial assistant at Freestylin’, a biker magazine. In 1991, he helped found Dirt, a short-lived spin-off of the popular teen magazine Sassy aimed at teenage male readers. His first music-video gig came in 1992, when he was hired to shoot video footage of skateboarding for Sonic Youth’s “100%.” His breakthrough video, for “Sabotage,” by the Beastie Boys, was an inspired take-off on 1970s cop shows that earned four MTV Video Music Awards, including one for Jonze as Best Director. That same year, Jonze cemented his reputation for innovation and creativity with his eye-catching video for Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” in which the alternative band performed their hit single in the middle of what appeared to be an episode of the 1970s sitcom Happy Days.
Throughout the 1990s, Jonze directed music videos for many other prominent artists—including R.E.M., the Breeders, Puff Daddy, the Chemical Brothers, and Bjork—as well as a number of memorable television commercials for companies like Nike, Sprite, Nissan, and Coca-Cola. His interest and talent also extended to the other side of the camera—he was dragged behind a van in a TV spot for Levi’s 501 and played bit parts in two films Mi Vida Loca (1993) and The Game (1997). In the 1999 video for Praise You, the hit single by British DJ Fatboy Slim (which he co-directed), Jonze starred as spastic community dance-troupe leader Richard Koufey, racking up three more MTV awards and showing up at the ceremony as Koufey (whom Jonze still maintains is another person). In addition, Jonze directed a number of short features.
After a deal to direct the $25 million film adaptation of the children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon fell through in 1997, Jonze signed a development and production deal with Propaganda Films. In 1999, the multi-talented Jonze delivered star-making performances both as an actor and a director. In the black comedy Three Kings, co-starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube, Jonze received critical praise for his performance as the redneck Gulf War soldier Conrad Vig. His first full-length directorial effort, Being John Malkovich, generated even more positive buzz. The unashamedly eccentric, undeniably smart, existential comedy starred John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener as New Yorkers who gain access into the mind of the titular thespian, John Malkovich, who plays himself. For his efforts, Jonze earned numerous honors, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. In 2000, he will produce Human Nature, reteaming with Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.
In the summer of 1999, Jonze married Sofia Coppola, a former actress (1990’s The Godfather, Part III) and fellow director (2000’s The Virgin Suicides) at the Napa Valley vineyard owned by her father, the famed director Francis Ford Coppola.

Spike Jonze