Edgar Wright (born 18 April 1974 in Poole, Dorset) is an English film and television director. He is most famous as the director and co-writer of the "romantic comedy with zombies", Shaun of the Dead, the "Buddy Cop" comedy Hot Fuzz and the surreal TV series Spaced.
Wright started directing his own movies at the age of 14 when he was at The Blue School, Wells, Somerset (his home city). At the age of 20 he made a spoof western, A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the British satellite TV channel Sky Movies. He then directed a number of television comedy programmes for the UK's Paramount Comedy channel and the BBC, including Asylum, during the production of which he met writer-actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson. In 1999 he joined Pegg and Stevenson to create Spaced for Channel 4. Wright gave Spaced an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language of science fiction and horror films. In 2002, he made appearances as a scientist and a technician, named Eddie Yorque during both series of Look Around You, a BBC programme by a member of the Spaced cast, Peter Serafinowicz.
The critical success of Spaced paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy which mixed a "brit flick" romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi.
The pair have written a comedy action thriller, Hot Fuzz. Filming started in March 2006 and the film was released in February 2007 in the UK and was released April 2007 in the US. It revolves around Pegg's character, Nicholas Angel, being transferred from London to rural Gloucestershire, where grisly events begin taking place.
Wright has directed two videos for his ex-girlfriend Charlotte Hatherley: "Summer" and "Bastardo".
Wright directed a fake trailer insert for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse (as did Eli Roth and Rob Zombie). Called "Don't", it was a plotless trailer that mocked horror cliches with lines such as, "If you... are thinking... of going... into... this... house... DON'T!"
Wright has a brother Oscar, who created the animation for the flickbook PC Danny Butterman uses in Hot Fuzz. Oscar also was on set for the Hot Fuzz poster shoot to help Edgar out with the design.
