Jonathan Dayton (born 7 July 1957 in Alameda County, California) and Valerie Faris (born 20 October 1958 in Los Angeles County, California) are an award-winning team of music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, 2006's Little Miss Sunshine.
Jonathan Dayton, after graduating from Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, California, attended the UCLA Film School, studying film and television in the late-1970s; while there, he met Valerie Faris, a dance student, who became his wife and his partner. As a pair, they have directed and produced music videos, documentaries, commercials and films. They have received international fame for their music videos for bands such as Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, and R.E.M.. They won six MTV Video Music Awards for the video "Tonight Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins. In 1998 they established a production company, "Bob Industries". Through this company the pair directed commercials for companies such as Volkswagen, Sony, GAP, Target, Ikea, Apple Computer, and ESPN. They have broadened their horizons through television work ("Mr. Show") and film direction(Little Miss Sunshine). The latter won the Audience Award at the 2006 Sydney Film festival and an ovation at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
In December 2006, Variety announced that the team's next project would be a screen adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel The Abstinence Teacher for Warner Independent Pictures. As of January 2007, Dayon and Faris were working on the film's screenplay with Perrotta.
