Personal info
Known for
Director
Gender
Male
Date of Birth
1975-06-01
Location
England, United Kingdom
Edit pageGareth Edwards
Biography
Gareth James Edwards (born 13 July 1975) is a British filmmaker. He first gained widespread recognition for Monsters (2010), an independent film in which he served as writer, director, cinematographer, and visual effects artist.
He subsequently directed Godzilla (2014), a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise and the first film in Legendary's MonsterVerse, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), the first installment of the Star Wars anthology series and an immediate prequel to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977).
He would return to making original films with the science fiction thriller The Creator (2023).
Gareth Edwards was born on 13 July 1975 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He is of Welsh parentage. He attended Higham Lane School followed by college at North Warwickshire College (now NWSLC) under the AV department with lecturers like Graham Bird.
Since childhood, he wanted to direct his own films, stating that "Star Wars is definitely the reason that I wanted to become a filmmaker". Edwards studied film and video at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in Farnham, graduating in 1996.
In 2012, he received an honorary Master of Arts from UCA. Edwards got his start in visual effects, creating digital effects for prestigious shows such as Nova, Perfect Disaster, and Heroes and Villains, the latter of which was a series for which he made 250 visual effects, which won international recognition.
In 2008 he entered the Sci-Fi-London 48-hour film challenge, where a movie had to be created start-to-finish in just two days, within certain criteria. Edwards won the contest and went on to write and direct Monsters, his first feature.
Edwards personally created the visual effects for Monsters using off-the-shelf equipment. Besides the two main actors, the crew consisted of just five people.
