Gil Kenan
Birthdate: Oct 16, 1976
Birthplace: London, England, UK
Gil Kenan is a director/writer/producer who has specialized in horror and fantasy movies—sometimes blending both—beginning with Kenan’s feature debut as director on the animated horror-comedy, Monster House (2006), starring the voices of Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O’Hara, Kathleen Turner, and Fred Willard, and grossing a healthy $142 million (on a $75 million budget) for Sony/Columbia Pictures and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
Kenan’s second feature as director only was also his first live-action movie, City of Ember (2008), adapted from Jeanne DuPrau’s novel, with Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Mary Kay Place, Bill Murray, Martin Landau, Toby Jones, and Tim Robbins, but which lost money for 20th Century Fox with a poor $18 million gross against $55 million costs. Kenan’s third feature in a row as director only was the remake of Poltergeist (2015), starring Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jane Adams, and Jared Harris, and grossing a good $95.4 million worldwide for 20th Century Fox.
Kenan had a busy 2021, first as screenwriter and executive producer on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the fourth movie in the Ghostbusters franchise, with Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson, and earning a robust $204 million globally for Columbia/Sony Pictures; and then with Kenan’s first movie as director-writer, A Boy Called Christmas, starring Henry Lawful, Toby Jones, Sally Hawkins, Kristen Wiig, Maggie Smith, and Jim Broadbent, and released theatrically in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, and China, and streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
Gil Kenan returned to the Ghostbusters franchise as writer-director-executive producer this time for Columbia/Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), with new cast members Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt. Kenan was co-writer (with director Jason Reitman) and producer of SNL 1975 (date to be announced), a recount of the premier year of NBC’s long-running comedy show, Saturday Night Live (1975-present), co-starring Dylan O’Brien, Rachel Sennott, Lamorne Morris, Ella Hunt, Kim Matula, Gabriel LaBelle, Cory Michael Smith, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, and Cooper Hoffman, via Sony Pictures Releasing.
Personal Details
Gil Kenan was born in London, England, and was raised as a child and teenager in London, Tel Aviv, and the Los Angeles suburb of Reseda, by his parents. Kenan has been married to art director Eliza Chaikin since 2005. Kenan’s estimated net worth is $3 million.
Filmography
director
Previous (1)
- 2024 | Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2021 | A Boy Called Christmas
A Boy Called Christmas
Eleven-year-old Nikolas, nicknamed Christmas because we was born on Christmas Day, has received only one toy in his life: a doll carved out of a turnip. But he's happy with his turnip doll, because it came from his parents, who love him. Then one day his widower father goes missing, and Nikolas must travel to the North Pole to save him. The story evolves into magical tale evolving elves, reindeers and a quest.
Previous (1)
- 2015 | PoltergeistasDirector
Poltergeist
A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive.
Some Facts About Gil Kenan
Influences: Gil Kenan has claimed filmmakers Zbigniew Rybczynski, David Lynch, Lotte Reiniger, Richard Elfman, Alfred Hitchcock, and Steven Spielberg as his main directorial influences, and has cited such movies as Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977), Elfman’s Forbidden Zone (1980), and Rybczynski’s animated short, Tango (1981) as the movies which have affected and influenced him the most.
