WRIGHT
Edgar

• 1. Early life and education

Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He began making independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

In 2004, Wright directed the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, starring Pegg and Frost, the first film in Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. The film was co-written with Pegg—as were the next two entries in the trilogy, the buddy cop film Hot Fuzz (2007) and the science fiction comedy The World's End (2013). In 2010, Wright co-wrote and directed the action comedy film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, an adaptation of the graphic novel series. Along with Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat, he adapted The Adventures of Tintin (2011) for Steven Spielberg. Wright and Cornish co-wrote the screenplay for the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man in 2015, which Wright intended to direct but abandoned, citing creative differences. He has also directed the action film Baby Driver (2017), and recently the documentary The Sparks Brothers (2021), as well as the psychological horror film Last Night in Soho (2021).

Early life and education

Edgar Howard Wright was born on 18 April 1974 in Poole, Dorset and grew up predominantly in Wells in Somerset. He has an older brother, Oscar, who is an artist. He attended The Blue School, Wells from 1985 to 1992, and is honoured by a plaque at the school. His school drama teacher, Peter Wild, later played a cameo role in Hot Fuzz.

At the age of 12, Wright brought a date to the 1987 film Mannequin, but failed to kiss her due to the presence of a group of boys. This led to the demise of their romance, and the heartbreak Wright experienced would be instrumental in his career.

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, he directed many short films, first on a Super-8 camera that was a gift from a family member and later on a Video-8 camcorder that he won in a competition on the television-program Going Live. These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspired Carbolic Soap and Dirty Harry tribute Dead Right (which was featured on the DVD release of Hot Fuzz).

From 1992 to 1994, Wright attended the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design (now Arts University Bournemouth) and received an ND in Audio-Visual Design.

In June 2018, Arts University Bournemouth awarded Wright an Honorary Fellowship. On receiving the award Wright said that he still thought very fondly of his time there.