Gareth Edwards (director)

Gareth James Edwards (born 13 July 1975) is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects artist. 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 the 2014 reboot of Godzilla, and the space opera film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), the first in the Star Wars Anthology.

Career
Gareth Edwards was born on 13 July 1975 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He is of Welsh parentage. He attended Higham Lane School. 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 BA (Hons) Film & Video at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, formerly the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, 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 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.

The success of Monsters brought enough awareness in Hollywood to land Edwards a few major projects. After the film's release, he did interviews in Hollywood with several studios, including Legendary Pictures. In January 2011, Edwards landed his first major Hollywood feature, as the director of the 2014 Godzilla reboot from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

Edwards directed Rogue One, the first Star Wars stand-alone film, written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, based on a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta, starring Felicity Jones, and released on 16 December 2016.

Three of his influences for filmmaking are George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. In May 2016, Edwards exited Godzilla: King of the Monsters in an amicable split with the studio to work on smaller scale projects.