Alexander Payne is a producer, screenwriter, and also film director. He is a United States citizen. He is popular because of Citizen Ruth’s films, which came out in 1996; Election, which came out three years later. About Schmidt in 2001, The Descendants in 2011, Nebraska in 2013, and the most recent one is Downsizing, which came out in 2017. Alexander Payne is also popular for his dark humor.
Alexander Payne Early Life and Education
Alexander Payne was born in Nebraska in a place called Omaha. His parents are Peggy and George Payne, and in the family, he is the youngest with two brothers. He grew up in a neighborhood called Dundee. They owned a restaurant called The Virginia Café; it was passed on to his father from his father.
Alexander went to Brownell-Talbot School and Dundee elementary school. When he went on to high school, he attended Lewis and Clark Junior High school. In 1979, Payne graduated from another high school called Creighton Prep. At this school, he was the of the yearbook.
Payne joined Stanford University, where he specialized in History and Spanish. He also studied at the University of Salamanca as part of his Spanish degree. For only a few months, Payne lived in Medellin in Colombia. During his stay here, he published an article concerning social changes.
How was Alexander Payne`s Career?
In 1990 Payne received MFA that came from UCLA Film School. A short period after he received this MFA and successfully finished a thesis film called the passion of Martin, he attracted a lot of people. Payne received his first deal with Universal Pictures for a directing role.
After working in different capacities on television and films, Payne became the director and co-writer of his first full film called Citizen Ruth, which was in the year 1996. His second film, called Election, aimed at politics and education in the United States, attracted attention.
He was nominated for Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay because of the film Election. In 2002 he had another film called About Schmidt, the film debuted at Cannes Film Festival, and Payne got a Golden Globe because of the screenplay.
In 2011 he returned to directing role; he directed a film, The Descendants. In 2017 he released the film Downsizing, which received a lot of critics. He was able to come back in June 2021; he directed Paul Giamatti in a film called The Holdovers.