Damien Chazelle

Damien Chazelle (Damien Sayre Chazelle) was born on 19 January, 1985. He is a screenwriter and director. Famously known for directing Whiplash (2014) and La La Land Click to look into! >> Read More... (2016), he has had many more movies to his acclaim. Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island in a Roman Catholic family. His mother and father, Celia Chazelle and Bernard Chazelle are both professors by profession. Celia Chazelle is a history professor at The College Of New Jersey and Bernard Chazelle is the Eugene Higgins professor of computer science at Princeton University.

Chazelle’s sister, Anna, is a circus performer and an actress. Chazelle didn’t start with filmmaking, even though it was his first love. He wanted to be a musician and tried to make his way through Princeton High School as a jazz drummer. His teacher at the school went on to become his inspiration for the intense Terry Fletcher in his film Whiplash. However, contrary to the protagonist in Whiplash, Chazelle was certain that the talent required for great music,was not present in him.

So turning back towards his first love, he graduated in the year 2007, from Harvard University, having studied film making in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department. While at Harvard, he met Jasmine McGlade and the couple married in 2010, their marriage lasted for four years before their divorce in the year 2014. Chazelle’s directorial debut was in the year 2009, with a musical, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. He was the producer, cinematographer, soundtrack lyricist, and the editor for the musical.

In the year 2013, he directed and wrote a short film, Whiplash, which a year later became his breakthrough in film industry. Whiplash was created as a short film to premier at the Sundance Film Festival to raise funds for the film. The same year he worked on the story and screenplay of The Last Exorcism Click to look into! >> Read More... II, and as a writer on Grand Piano Click to look into! >> Read More... . Year 2014 launched him as a director in Hollywood with his film Whiplash. The movie earned an Academy Award nomination for the best-adapted screenplay and BAFTA nominations for best direction and best original screenplay.

In 2016, he worked as a co-writer for “10 Clover field Lane” and as the director and writer for the critically acclaimed blockbuster movie “La La Land.” The movie won seven awards at the Golden Globes, 5 of the 11 nominations at the BAFTA and had 14 nominations at the Academy Awards. Chazelle won the best director at the Academy Awards, BAFTA, and the Golden Globes.