Peyton Reed Biography

Date of Birth: July 3, 1964

Born and raised in Raleigh, Peyton Reed was the youngest of three boys. His parents gave him a Super 8 camera for Christmas when he was 13, so he immediately began writing and directing films starring his friends and family. He enjoyed the experience so much that he went on to study filmmaking at the University of North Carolina. After graduation in 1987, Reed moved to Los Angeles, where his first job in the film industry was as a production assistant for ABC television. He was then offered a position as editor at ZM Productions, but because it didn’t pay enough to live on, he first took on a temporary job as a driver on the movie Bull Durham (1988), which enabled him to save enough to accept the editor position.

In the meantime, he made a short film, Almost Beat (1989), which was shown at various film festivals. His bosses at ZM were so impressed that they began to assign him writing and directing duties for their company. His earliest projects were behind-the-scenes television documentaries such as The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy (1990) and Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump (1994).

He next did the Disney TV remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1995), starring Kirk Cameron in the role Kurt Russell originated in 1969. Reed moved to series television, directing episodes of the HBO’s The Mr. Show and The High Life, as well as the Saturday morning CBS series The Weird Al Show, starring Weird Al Yankovic.

Reed next directed another Disney TV movie remake, The Love Bug (1997), before being called to New York to direct several episodes of Comedy Central’s TV series Upright Citizens Brigade. Prior to leaving for NYC, he read a script for a teen flick called Cheer Fever. He was interested in directing it, and met with the producers to tell them about the ideas he had for the film. By the time he’d done his third episode of Upright Citizens Brigade, Reed received a phone call to say he’d gotten the project. The film was eventually called Bring it On (2000), starring Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku, and was extremely successful at the box office, playing for nearly six months. Reed returned to television for one episode of the series Grosse Pointe before directing his second feature, Down with Love (2003), starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

Reed lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Beth, who runs a music video production company.

Filmography:

The Break Up (2006)
Down with Love (2003)
Bring It On (2000)