Jonze, Spike (1969- )

US film director, actor, and producer. He is best known for directing highly original and darkly comic films written by US screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, such as Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002). He also produced MTV's popular but infamously poor-taste reality series Jackass (2000) and the subsequent feature film Jackass: The Movie (2002).

Though both Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were critically acclaimed, neither enjoyed the great box-office success of Jackass: The Movie, in which Jonze teamed up with fellow skateboarder Johnny Knoxville to produce a low-budget film depicting crazy stunts and pranks. Jonze also had minor acting roles in The Game and Mi Vida Loca (both 1997), and a more major and critically acclaimed role in the Gulf War film Three Kings (1999). He also teamed up with Kaufman to produce the dark comedy Human Nature (2002).

Jonze was born in St Louis, Missouri, but grew up in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. He worked at various skateboarding magazines and went on to photograph and film skateboarders professionally. The videos drew the attention of pop bands, and he began directing pop videos, contributing material for such influential bands as Sonic Youth, REM, Weezer, the Beastie Boys, and Björk. He was married to film director Sofia Coppola 1999-2004.