Gil Kenan

Gil Kenan
Born	October 16, 1976 London England
Occupation	Film Director
Years active	2006 - Present
Spouse	Eliza Chaikin

Gil Kenan (born October 16, 1976 in London, England) is a British-American-Israeli film director. Kenan received his MFA degree from the UCLA Film School in 2002.

Life and career

Kenan was born in London but left when he was three for Tel Aviv then moved to Reseda, Los Angeles at the age of 8.

He went on to study at the film division of the University of California, Los Angeles.

His student short film, The Lark, caught the attention of Jordan Bealmear who was a trainee at Creative Artists Agency. He brought Kenan's stop-motion claymation/live-action short to Robert Zemeckis agent, which landed Kenan the director's chair for the 2006 film Monster House, which Zemeckis executive produced with Steven Spielberg. Kenan was nominated for a 2006 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for his work on the film.

Kenan's latest film, City of Ember (2008), is the screen adaptation of Jeanne Duprau's 2003 novel The City of Ember. Produced by Tom Hanks, it was released in October 2008 to mixed reviews and poor box office results.

Kenan will be directing the upcoming movie, Airman, based on the book by Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl and Half Moon Investigations.

He is currently working as director on the upcoming film Junkers as director and writer for 20th Century Fox.

Kenan is married to Eliza Chaikin who served as art director on City of Ember.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
2004	The Lark	Director, Writer
2006	Monster House	Director, Writer/Performer: "Thou Art Dead"
2008	City of Ember	Director
2013	Airman	Director

External links

• Interview
• 3 Questions with Gil Kenan
• Gil Kenan at the Internet Movie Database