Paul Greengrass Biography

Paul Greengrass is a British filmmaker whose semi-documentary style in independent films led to smash success in Hollywood as the director of Jason Bourne movies.

He got his start in British television in the early 1980s, making documentaries on current affairs. After a decade, he began making dramas, often along the same lines. 2002’s Bloody Sunday made it clear Greengrass could should startling action sequences, and he was hired to direct the second Bourne movie, The Bourne Supremacy (2004, starring Matt Damon). It was a box office hit, as was his follow-up, 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum.

In that time, he also made United 93, a harrowing, documentary-like depiction of a terrorist attack that brought him an Oscar nomination for best director.

His other films include Green Zone (2007, also with Matt Damon), Captain Phillips (2013, starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi) and Jason Bourne (2016, with Alicia Vikander).