Rian Johnson, born in 1973 in Maryland, is a writer and director, who won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with his debut feature, Brick. It took him nine years to make the first film. Johnson kept busy during his nine-year ordeal producing promos for children’s TV shows at the Disney Channel, and made instructional videos at a school for deaf children. Later, when he was actually making his movie, he wrote screenplays to pay the rent.

His second film, Brothers Bloom, debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and will receive a theatrical release in May 2009. Rian is currently working on Looper, set in the present-day, and involves a group of hitmen that are sent back in time for their victims from the future.

Johnson is originally from San Clemente, California, and attended the high school where Brick was predominantly filmed. He then attended the University of Southern California and graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1996. “When young film students ask me for some advice on how to make it in this business, I tell them that 95 percent of the battle is just sticking around,” Johnson said. “I tell them that the first thing they should do is get a good day job. If you can eat and pay the rent, and don’t have to move back home, then you have a chance.”

In addition to his film work, Johnson is also an accomplished folk singer. Some of his songs can be found in faux albums on his website.