Martin Guigui
Birthdate: Jun 26, 1965
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Martin Guigui is a multi-hyphenate, feature film director, screenwriter, and producer as well as a music producer and composer. His directorial feature debut was the comedy, My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception (1999), with Debbie Gibson, Dom DeLuise, and Mo Gaffney.
Guigui’s next feature was the film adaptation of Daniel Wright’s play, Changing Hearts (2002), with Lauren Holly, Faye Dunaway, and Tom Skerritt, followed by the music-based movie, Swing (2003), also co-starring Skerritt, and Jacqueline Bisset, Jonathan Winters, and Nell Carter. Winters again appeared under writer-director Guigui’s direction in National Lampoon Presents Cattle Call (2006), with Diedrich Bader, Chelsea Handler, and Paul Mazursky, and then Guigui directed and co-wrote with star Courtney Gains the rock mockumentary, Benny Bliss and the Disciples of Greatness (2009), with Corey Britz.
Martin Guigui’s next directing assignment was in the horror-thriller mode, Beneath the Darkness (2011), starring Dennis Quaid, followed by the lambasted boxing movie, The Bronx Bull (2016), with William Forsythe as Jake LaMotta, Joe Mantegna, Tom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino, and Penelope Ann Miller, and which Guigui directed and co-wrote.
Co-writer and director Guigui steered the topical thriller, 9/11 (2017), co-starring Charlie Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, and Gina Gershon, and then writer-director Guigui made the anti-bullying high school musical, Drama Drama (2019), with Cheri Oteri, Cinta Laura Kiehl, and Hunter Sansone.
Director Guigui turned to the horror-fantasy genre for The Unhealer (2020), starring Lance Henriksen, Natasha Henstridge, and Adam Beach. Guigui’s biggest-budget ($8 million) movie to date as writer-director was the basketball drama, Sweetwater (2023), starring Everett Osborne, Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Pollak, Richard Dreyfuss, Jim Caviezel, Eric Roberts, and Ernest Harden Jr. As director and co-writer, Guigui then turned to the crime genre and star Chazz Palminteri for the crime comedy, The Stone Pony (date to be announced).
Another comedy for writer-director Guigui was Big Finish (date to be announced), starring Garrett Morris and Rudy De Luca. Guigui’s non-directorial credits included serving as an executive producer on director James Franco’s and writer Matt Rager’s film version of John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle (2016), with Franco, Nat Wolff, Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Sam Shepard, Selena Gomez, Bryan Cranston, Ed Harris, and John Savage.
Personal Details
Martin Guigui was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New York, and Vermont. His father was Efrain Guigui, a symphony orchestra conductor. Martin Guigui was a young music prodigy, playing the violin by age four and debuting as a violinist with the Puerto Rico Symphony at age 12. Guigui played on his high school’s basketball team. Guigui has been married to Dahlia Guigui since 2003; the couple has three children. Guigui’s height is 5’ 9”.
Filmography
actor
Previous (18)
- 2023 | SweetwaterasDirector(directed by)
Sweetwater
In the fall of 1950, Nat 'Sweetwater' Clifton makes history in his journey to become the first African American to sign an NBA contract, forever changing the game of basketball.
- 2021 | Paradise Cove
- 2020 | Find Your Groove
- 2020 | The Unhealeras Director
- 2019 | Drama Drama
- 2018 | Billy Gibbons & the BFG's: CUBA
- 2017 |
- 2016 | Hero with a Thousand Faces
- 2016 | The Bronx Bull
- 2015 | Newman
- 2011 | Beneath the Darkness
- 2011 | Born to Ride
- 2009 | Benny Bliss and the Disciples of Greatness
- 2009 | Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!!
- 2006 | Cattle Call
- 2003 | Swing
- 2002 | Changing Hearts
- 1999 | My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Receptionas Producer
Some Facts About Martin Guigui
Composer/Filmmaker: Martin Guigui is an unusual Hollywood-based writer-producer-director in that he has also composed the scores for some of his features, including My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception, Cattle Call, 9/11, as well as his music-themed documentaries Find Your Groove (2020) and The Hit Man (2022).
