Shawn Adam Levy (born July 23, 1968) is a Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor, and founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. He has worked across genres and is perhaps best known as the director of the Night at the Museum film franchise and primary producer of the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Following early work as a television director, Levy gained recognition in the 2000s for directing comedy films like Big Fat Liar and Just Married before subsequently directing the Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, and Night at the Museum film franchises. In the early 2010s, he directed films including Date Night and Real Steel, developed several comedy television pilots, and executive produced the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing. Levy was a producer on the 2016 sci-fi film Arrival, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
Since 2016, Levy has been an executive producer on the Netflix original series Stranger Things. He has directed the third and fourth episodes of each of the show's four seasons. He also directed the upcoming Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See. Most recently, he has collaborated with Ryan Reynolds by directing Free Guy (2021), The Adam Project (2022), and the upcoming Deadpool 3 (2024).
Early life
Levy was born to a Jewish family with two siblings, Rob and Debby, in Montreal, Quebec. As a teenager, he attended St. George's High School in Montreal and trained at the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in New York's Catskills. Pursuing a career in acting, he attended the performing arts program at Yale University, graduating in 1989; during his time there, he became interested in directing and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to study film directing. He received a MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1994.
Career
1985–1994: Early career and education
Levy began his professional career while pursuing his undergraduate and graduate degrees in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s. While studying performing arts, he made his acting debut in Zombie Nightmare (1987), a low-budget horror film in which he portrayed the character Jim Bratten, the leader of a group of teenagers. The film is best known for being featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also appeared in the 1988 film Liberace: Behind the Music.
He subsequently pursued his MFA in production, during which time he continued to act with a guest spot on 21 Jump Street and a recurring role on Beverly Hills, 90210. Since this time, he has acted in primary small and cameo roles as well like on 30 Rock as TV producer Scottie Shofar.
1995–2014: Directorial career and 20th Century Fox
Through the end of the 1990s, Levy worked primarily as a television director of teen dramas, like Nickelodeon's The Secret World of Alex Mack and Animorphs. He was the primary director and executive producer (season 3) of the Disney Channel coming-of-age show The Famous Jett Jackson (1998–2002) and its companion film (2001).He made his feature film directorial debut in 1997 with the family films Address Unknown and Just in Time. This was followed by the 2002 teen comedy Big Fat Liar, his first theatrical release, and the 2003 rom com Just Married, which made more than $100 million in the box office. For the remainder of the decade, Levy worked successfully on big-budget family films, namely directing Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), The Pink Panther (2006), and Night at the Museum franchise (2006–2014)—and produced all of their sequel films. The first Night at the Museum film was Levy's most commercially successful project and one of the highest-grossing films of 2006. During this time he also produced the 2008 films What Happens in Vegas and The Rocker and executive produced The WB dramedy Pepper Dennis (2006).
Levy directed and produced the 2010 comedy Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey. The same year, he began directing the sci fi drama Real Steel (2011), starring Hugh Jackman. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the film received mixed critical reviews and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.