Adam Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television. With Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville he co-created the MTV reality series Jackass (2000-2001), and was involved in the film spinoffs (2002-2026). He is also known for his collaborations with Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman.
He received his first Academy Award nomination (Best Director) for his debut feature Being John Malkovich (1999), with John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, Charlie Sheen, and John Malkovich. His followup films include Adaptation (2002), with Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ron Livingston; and Where the Wild Things Are (2009), with Max Records, Keener, and Mark Ruffalo, and the voices of Lauren Ambrose, Cooper, Paul Dano, Michael Berry Jr., James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, and Forest Whitaker.
He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Her (2013), with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pratt, and the voice of Scarlett Johansson. He was also nominated for Best Original Song and Best Picture.
In addition to the Jackass films, Jonze has also acted as a producer or executive producer on Human Nature (2001), with Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, Rosie Perez, Peter Dinklage, Place, Robert Forster, and Toby Huss; Synecdoche, New York (2008), with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Keener, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, and Tom Noonan; Nine Days (2020), with Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz; and You Resemble Me (2021), with Lorenza Grimaudo, Ilonna Grimaudo, Mouna Soualem, Sabrina Ouazani, Dina Amer, Alexandre Gonin, Grégoire Colin, and Zinedine Soualem.
He’s also worked as an actor sporadically throughout his career, making his acting debut in a small role in Allison Anders’s Mi Vida Loca (1994), with Angel Aviles, Seidy López, Jacob Vargas, Panchito Gómez, Jesse Borrego, Danny Trejo, Salma Hayek, and Jason Lee; followed by another small role in David Fincher’s The Game (1997), with Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn, Deborah Kara Unger, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker, and Armin Mueller-Stahl; and a voice role in Didi (2024), with Izaac Wang and Joan Chen.
He had a prominent supporting role in David O. Russell‘sT hree Kings (1999), with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Nora Dunn, Jamie Kennedy, Mykelti Williamson, Cliff Curtis, and SaĂŻd Taghmaoui. He had uncredited roles in Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (2011), with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Hoffman, Robin Wright and Pratt; Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), with Leonardo DiCaprio, Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, and Jean Dujardin; and Damien Chazzelle’s Babylon (2022), with Robbie, Pitt, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Max Minghella, Katherine Waterston, Tobey Maguire, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving, and Wilde. He also had a recurring role in comedy series The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (2010–2012), with David Cross, Sharon Horgan, Blake Harrison, Will Arnett, Sara Pascoe and Amber Tamblyn.
He also had uncredited voice roles in The Jungle Book (2016), with Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Walken; and Garth Jennings’s Sing 2 (2021), with McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Pharrell Williams, Nick Offerman, Letitia Wright, Eric AndrĂ©, Chelsea Peretti, and Bono.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Video Days (1991) – director, producer, editor – documentary short
- Mi Vida Loca (1994) – directed by Allison Anders – actor
- The Game (1997) – directed by David Fincher – actor
- How They Get Here (1997) – director, co-writer – short
- Amarillo by Morning (1998) – director – documentary short
- Being John Malkovich (1999) – director, actor
- Torrance Rises – co-directed with Lance Bangs – also actor – short
- Three Kings (1999) – directed by David O. Russell – actor
- Human Nature (2001) – directed by Michel Gondry
- Jackass: The Movie (2002) – directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-producer, also appears as himself
- Adaptation (2002) – director, uncredited cameo as himself
- Jackass Number 2 (2006) – directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-producer, also appears as himself
- Synecdoche, New York (2008) – directed by Charlie Kaufman – producer
- Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak (2009) – co-directed with Lance Bangs – also co-cinematographer, self – TV documentary
- Where the Wild Things Are (2009) – director, co-writer, actor
- I’m Here (2010) – director, writer – short
- Jackass 3D (2010) -directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-producer, also appears as himself
- The Vampire Attack (2010) – director, actor – short
- Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (2010) – directed by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski – short – producer, voice
- Moneyball (2011)* – directed by Bennett Miller – uncredited actor
- Her (2013) – director, writer, producer
- Bad Grandpa (2013) – directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-writer, co-story, co-producer, actor
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – directed by Martin Scorsese – uncredited actor
- The Jungle Book (2016)* – directed by Jon Favreau – uncredited voice
- Sing 2 (2021)* – directed by Garth Jennings – uncredited voice
- Jackass Forever (2022) – directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-producer, also appears as himself
- Babylon (2022) – directed by Damien Chazelle – uncredited actor
- Didi (2024) – directed by Sean Wang – voice
- Jackass: Best and Last (2026) – directed by Jeff Tremaine – co-producer, also appears as himself
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