Andy Wachowski Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Andy Wachowski
OCCUPATION: Filmmaker, Screenwriter
BIRTH DATE: December 29, 1967 (Age: 45)
EDUCATION: Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Emerson College
PLACE OF BIRTH: Chicago, Illinois
Full Name: Andrew Wachowski
AKA: Andy Wachowski
ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn

Best Known For

Andy Wachowski is a writer, director and producer known for sci-fi and action films, including The Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta and Cloud Atlas.

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Andy Wachowski

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Andy Wachowski. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:49, Jun 20, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/andy-wachowski-21095529.

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Andy Wachowski. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/andy-wachowski-21095529 [Accessed 20 Jun 2013].

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Andy Wachowski [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 20] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/andy-wachowski-21095529.

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Andy Wachowski, http://www.biography.com/people/andy-wachowski-21095529 (last visited Jun 20, 2013).

AMA Style

Andy Wachowski. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/andy-wachowski-21095529. Accessed Jun 20, 2013.

Synopsis

Born on December 29, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois, Andy Wachowski wrote for comics before working with sibling Larry to create the sexy thriller Bound. The Wachowskis then found great global success with the groundbreaking sci-fi feature The Matrix, followed by two sequels. The two later produced and wrote an adaptation of V for Vendetta and directed adaptations of Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas.

Quotes

"[Our parents] would show us that experiencing art was about abandoning your own perspective and yourself, and one way of understanding is by reaching out to people and having a dialogue about a movie."

– Andy Wachowski

"My desire for anonymity is rooted in two things...An aversion to celebrity (I like walking into a comics shop and nobody knowing who I am) and the fact that there’s something nicely egalitarian about anonymity."

– Andy Wachowski

Early Life and Career

Andrew Wachowski was born on December 29, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Lynne and Ron Wachowski, were avid filmgoers who treated him and older brother Larry to a variety of cinematic treats. Andy attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School before enrolling at Emerson College. He left school to run his own painting and carpentry business with Larry while writing for a Marvel Comics imprint series, Ectokid. Andy wed Alisa Blasingame in 1991.

The Wachowski siblings started working in Hollywood with producer Joel Silver by penning a script for the Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas action flick Assassins (1995). They were then given directing and screenwriting duties for the sultry, women-centered heist film Bound (1996), starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly.

Launching 'The Matrix'

The siblings (formerly known as "the Wachowski Brothers") ended up directing and co-writing a groundbreaking work that explored existential philosophies in a dynamic storyline: The Matrix. The 1999 Warner Bros. film, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss, had a story that scrutinized the virtual world of a future era, and revolutionized the interplay of action choreography and CGI effects. The movie was a global blockbuster and was followed by two 2003 sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, with the trilogy earning more than $1 billion worldwide. Though enjoying huge success, the siblings maintained their privacy, negotiating with Warner Bros. that they wouldn't do press.

Andy helped to establish Burlyman Entertainment, a comic and graphic novel publisher, in 2004. The siblings stayed in that literary world for their next project, producing and writing the 2006 film adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel V for Vendetta. The movie, directed by James McTeigue, starred Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman as characters in a dystopic England undergoing revolution, as sparked by a masked figure.