Gil Kenan

Career The first public screening of The Lark caught the attention of Jordan Bealmear, who was an assistant at Creative Artists Agency. The agency sent hundreds of copies of Kenan's short in order to interest parties in the film industry and after a few months of interviews, Robert Zemeckis offered Kenan the director's chair for his first feature, Monster House (2006). Executive produced by Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, losing to Happy Feet.

Kenan followed Monster House with City of Ember, a post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film based on Jeanne DuPrau's 2003 novel of the same name. Produced by Tom Hanks, Kenan's next film, Poltergeist, a remake of the 1982 Tobe Hooper film of the same name, was released in May 2015. In July of that same year, Kenan signed on to direct and co-write a film adaptation of the popular video game series Five Nights at Freddy's by Scott Cawthon, but later withdrew from the project. Kenan also co-wrote and directed the Christmas fantasy film A Boy Called Christmas, and was released on Netflix in 2021. In 2019, Kenan co-wrote a script along with Jason Reitman for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which is a direct sequel to Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, was released in 2021. After the film's success, he and Reitman formed a production company Reitman/Kenan Productions and signed an overall deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop more projects. He was later chosen to direct the 2024 film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, replacing Reitman, who instead became a producer and was a co-writer of the film with Kenan.

Influences Kenan has cited David Lynch, Richard Elfman, Lotte Reiniger, Zbigniew Rybczyński, and Alfred Hitchcock as influences; he once met with Elfman. Among his favorite movies and short films, Kenan has listed Eraserhead, Forbidden Zone and Tango, as all three influenced Kenan's short The Lark. He first became aware of a director's own style while watching Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and appreciated Gilliam's point of view as well as that of Steven Spielberg in his 1980s films, leading him to respect a film's craft and storytelling.

Filmography Short film Year Title Director Writer 2002 The Lark

Feature film Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes 2006 Monster House 2008 City of Ember 2015 Poltergeist 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife A Boy Called Christmas 2024 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Also voiced Garraka Saturday Night

Television Year Title Notes 2016 Scream Episode "Village of the Damned"

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result 2006 Academy Awards Best Animated Feature Monster House 2024 Denver Film Festival5280 Award Saturday Night Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards Best Original Screenplay St. Louis Film Critics Association Original Screenplay