Alex Winter
☼ Born on 17 December 1965, in London, England, UK
Biography
Alex Winter began his career as a child actor; co-starring roles include the Broadway productions of "The King & I" with Yul Brynner, and "Peter Pan" with Sandy Duncan, and the American premiere of Simon Gray's "Close of Play" at the Manhattan Theater Club, directed by Lynne Meadow.
After attending NYU film school, Winter went on to have starring roles in several feature films, including Orion's huge hit "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and its sequel "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" the Warner Brothers cult favorite "The Lost Boys", Ivan Passer's "Haunted Summer" and Percy Adlon's "Rosalie Goes Shopping." With directing partner Tom Stern, Winter starred in, co-directed and co-wrote the hit MTV comedy series, "The Idiot Box" and starred in their theatrical co-directing debut, "Freaked," released by Twentieth Century Fox. "Freaked" was acclaimed by critics, including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, who heralded the film on their list of "Top Ten greatest comedies of the Nineties." Winter's solo directorial debut was the critically acclaimed "Fever," for Lionsgate, which screened in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. Also written by Winter, The New York Times' A.O. Scott praised the film as "Pure Hitchcockian panic. An arresting example of what a talented filmmaker can do with the sparest of means."
Winter is the founder of Trouper Productions, which services much of his directing work. In 2020, Winter released two new documentary feature films, "Showbiz Kids," pr
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emiered on HBO to widespread critical acclaim, garnering a Critics Choice nomination for Best Score by Tweedy. Followed by "Zappa," the first all-access documentary on the life and times of Frank Zappa. The Kickstarter campaign for this project was the highest funded documentary in crowdfunding history. Magnolia Pictures released "Zappa," a Critics Pick in the New York Times, and nominated for Best Music Documentary by the Critics Choice Awards.
Previous documentary work includes "The Panama Papers," about the largest global corruption scandal in history, and the journalists who worked in secret and at considerable risk to break the story. A multiple award-winner, "The Panama Papers," executive produced by Laura Poitras, opened to a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Also in release worldwide is "Trust Machine," about the rise of bitcoin and the blockchain, from Breaker Studios.
"Deep Web" is about the online black market Silk Road and the trial of its creator Ross Ulbricht. The documentary premiered on the Epix network, opening as the #1 documentary on iTunes and earning a Cinema Eye nomination among several award wins. "Downloaded" is a VH1 RockDoc about Napster and the digital revolution. The film premiered at SXSW, garnering worldwide critical acclaim at theatrical and festival screenings.
In 2013, Winter returned to the screen in "Grand Piano," directed by Eugenio Mira, from the Blacklist script by Damian Chezelle (La La Land), co-starring alongside Elijah Wood and John Cusack. Recently, Winter co-starred in the highly anticipated third installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, "Bill & Ted Face The Music," which opened in 2020 as the number one movie both in the U.S. and the UK.
Soon to be released is Winter's next feature documentary, "The YouTube Effect." Produced by Winter & Trouper Productions in partnership with Gale Anne Hurd & Valhalla Entertainment and Glen Zipper. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2022.
In the role of actor
Destroy All Neighbors (17/01/2024)
An aspiring prog-rock musician faces a rising body count after confronting his grotesque new neighbour in Destroy All Neighbors. William Brown (Jonah Ray) is a recording engineer and aspiring musician, trying to finish his prog-rock magnum opus in the apartment she shares with his girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol). However, William faces a roadblock with the […]
The YouTube Effect (20/08/2023)
The evolution of YouTube into one of the most ubiquitous and powerful media platforms in the world is explored in The YouTube Effect. YouTube was founded in 2005 by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim as a way for people to stream and share videos on the web easily. Following some […]
Bill & Ted Face the Music (05/09/2020)
The Wyld Stallyns go on one final time-traveling adventure in Bill & Ted Face the Music. It has been more than three decades since Bill S. Preston, Esq (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) were prophecized to write a song that unites the world, however their band Wyle Stallyns has been on a […]
In the role of director
The YouTube Effect (20/08/2023)
The evolution of YouTube into one of the most ubiquitous and powerful media platforms in the world is explored in The YouTube Effect. YouTube was founded in 2005 by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim as a way for people to stream and share videos on the web easily. Following some […]
The Panama Papers (08/03/2019)
The events surrounding one of the biggest data leaks in history is broken down in The Panama Papers. An anonymous source known only as John Doe contacts the media in 2015 and gives them access to 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca. The documents contain the records of countless […]
Deep Web (03/07/2015)
Crimes in the darkest corners of the internet are explored in Deep Web. The deep web is a term used for all unindexed data online. The deep web has become a hub for underground black markets, which sell everything from drugs to forged documents. The biggest of these markets is The Silk Road, the alleged leader […]
Deep Web (27/04/2015)
Crimes in the darkest corners of the internet are explored in Deep Web. The deep web is a term used for all unindexed data online. The deep web has become a hub for underground black markets, which sell everything from drugs to forged documents. The biggest of these markets is The Silk Road, the alleged […]
Downloaded (27/04/2013)
I was in my late-teens when Napster and file sharing began to take off and I can vividly remember the huge controversy it generated. After decades of buying music on vinyl and CDs, here was this software that allowed you to download high quality songs to your computer. While downloading music and movies is commonplace […]