Background and career
Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Going on to make higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success. Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion. He returned to the mystery genre with the Knives Out film series (2019–present), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. Additionally, Johnson is known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), namely "Ozymandias", "Fly", and "Fifty-One"; for the last, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series in 2013. He created the murder mystery series Poker Face for Peacock starring Natasha Lyonne. Johnson is known for his longstanding collaboration with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has appeared in all of his feature films to date in varying capacity. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Johnson was born on December 17, 1973, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, until sixth grade, when he moved to San Clemente, California. He attended San Clemente High School (graduating in 1992), where Brick was predominantly filmed. He attended the University of Southern California and graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1996. Johnson's second short film, Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!!, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", was included as an easter egg on the Looper Blu-ray.
Johnson has said he was inspired to become a film director after seeing Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall. "It moved me in a way that very few other films have moved me. That's something that, I pray to God, if I am able to keep making movies, I can only hope, twenty years down the line maybe, I'll be able to approach."
Johnson's debut feature film, Brick, is a crime drama released in 2005 and made for just under $500,000. Johnson has said he looked to Dashiell Hammett's novels as inspiration for the film's unique use of language. While the film is classified as a film noir, Johnson claims that no references were made to film noir during production, so as to focus the production away from reproducing a genre piece. Brick was released on DVD by Focus Features. Johnson directed the video for the Mountain Goats' song "Woke Up New" in 2006. He is a professed fan of the band and was asked to direct the video when bandleader John Darnielle noticed a reference to them in the credits for Brick. A song is credited to "The Hospital Bombers Experience", which is a reference to the Mountain Goats song titled "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton". Johnson also directed a live performance film of the Mountain Goats' 2009 album The Life of the World to Come. The film consists of a single shot, depicting Darnielle performing the entire album on guitar and piano with minimal accompaniment. This film was screened in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon upon its completion, and was released as a limited edition DVD on Record Store Day (April 17, 2010). Johnson's second feature film, The Brothers Bloom, is a con-man story released in theaters in May 2009 to moderately positive critical reviews. On Metacritic, the film was assigned a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 26 reviews from mainstream critics. In March 2010, Johnson announced that he was directing an episode of the TV series Breaking Bad for its third season. The episode, "Fly", aired on May 23, 2010. Johnson directed a second episode of the show, "Fifty-One", which aired on August 5, 2012, and earned him a Directors Guild of America Award. He directed a third episode, "Ozymandias", which received high praise from critics, frequently cited as being 'one of the best television episodes' to air. Johnson has made a number of short films, some of which are available on his website. His short film from high school, Ninja Ko, is available as an easter egg on the Brick DVD. After working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Brick, the two shot a short film in Paris titled Escargots. In 2002, he directed a short film, The Psychology of Dream Analysis, which is available to view on his Vimeo account. Johnson directed the episode "Manifest Destiny" of the TV series Terriers.
Johnson's third feature film, Looper, began shooting in Louisiana on January 24, 2011, and was released on September 28, 2012, by TriStar Pictures and FilmDistrict. Set in the near future, it has been described as dark science fiction, and involves hitmen whose victims are sent from the future. The film opened the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2012 Palo Alto International Film Festival. Looper was a surprise success at the box office.
On June 20, 2014, news broke that Johnson would write and direct the eighth installment in the Star Wars film series. Johnson confirmed the report that following month. The film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017, to positive reviews from critics and audiences. While multiple sources reported that Johnson turned down an offer from Lucasfilm to write and direct the film's follow-up, the then-untitled Episode IX, Johnson denied that he was ever in discussion for, or turned down, the role. On November 9, 2017, it was announced that Johnson would write a new trilogy of Star Wars films, separate from the main story arc of previous films in the franchise, and would direct the first installment of his trilogy. By 2025, Johnson's plans for a Star Wars trilogy had not materialized and the project never got past the conceptual stage. But he did not rule out working with Lucasfilm in the future.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
