Alex Garland

Garland was born in 1970, the son of the political cartoonist Nick Garland; he graduated from Manchester University in the history of art and then turned to fiction.⁠[1]

He began his first novel, The Beach, about a British backpacker seeking a secret beach in Thailand, at 23; published in 1996, it became a bestseller within a year through word of mouth. His second novel, The Tesseract, drew mixed reviews.⁠[1]

Danny Boyle adapted The Beach into a 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio; Boyle later said it was not a commercial or critical success.⁠[2]

He wrote the zombie film 28 Days Later for Boyle. He recalled that playing the video game Resident Evil gave him the idea of zombies that moved as fast as the game’s dogs; the film earned $84.6 million on an $8 million budget.⁠[3]

He went on to write the space thriller Sunshine (2007) for Boyle, adapt his friend Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go (released in 2010) and write the 2012 comic-book adaptation Dredd; all three were commercially unsuccessful.⁠[4]

He later said that on some films, including Dredd, he had essentially done some “ghost-directing,” while stressing that the credited director, Pete Travis, did crucial work and deserves that title; afterward he resolved not to work that way again.⁠[5]

His first film as writer-director, Ex Machina, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander, follows a programmer invited to test the artificial intelligence robot Ava.⁠[6]

It had its North American premiere at SXSW in 2015.⁠[7]

Ex Machina won Best Screenplay at the British Independent Film Awards.⁠[4]

Ex Machina won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2016 and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay; it also received five BAFTA nominations, including Outstanding Debut.⁠[6]

Made on a budget of only $15 million, the film beat Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is a space-fantasy film and entertainment franchise created by George Lucas and now owned by Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.Open the full entry: The Force Awakens, The Revenant, The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road.⁠[8]

Paramount hired him in late 2014 to adapt the science-fiction novel Annihilation, starring Natalie PortmanNatalie PortmanNatalie Portman is an actress, director, and producer who made her film debut in Léon: The Professional in 1994 and won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 83rd Academy Awards for Black Swan. She graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a degree in psychology, co-founded the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Angel City FC in 2020 with Kara Nortman, Julie Uhrman, and others, and founded the production company MountainA with Sophie Mas in 2021.Open the full entry; in December 2017 the studio struck a deal under which it would release the film in the U.S., Canada and China in February 2018 while Netflix streamed it in other international markets 17 days later, covering a good part of its roughly $55 million budget.⁠[9]

Devs, an eight-part limited series he wrote and directed in full, was the first show of the FX on HuluHuluHulu is a U.S. subscription streaming service offering series, films and original programming from the major television networks and studios, along with Hulu + Live TV, which includes live channels. It was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and News Corporation and opened to the public in March 2008; after a series of ownership changes, The Walt Disney Company took operational control in 2019 and full ownership in 2025, and is integrating Hulu into Disney+ as Disney’s global general entertainment brand.Open the full entry imprint; starring Sonoya Mizuno and Nick Offerman, it centers on a secret project at the Silicon Valley quantum-computing company Amaya and explores determinism and free will.⁠[10][11]

Ahead of the Devs premiere on Hulu on March 5, he appeared on episode 77 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing science fiction, artificial intelligence, Ex Machina, free will and Devs.⁠[12]

In May 2022 Men, a horror film he directed starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; the film uses horror tropes to explore emotional manipulation and male violence.⁠[13]

Critic Robert Abele called the film an “intriguing misfire” but said it was further proof that filmmakers like Garland are still needed.⁠[14]

Civil War, which he wrote and directed with Kirsten Dunst in the lead, had its world premiere on March 14, 2024, at the Paramount Theatre in Austin as a vision of a near-future America at war with itself.⁠[15]

In March 2024 he said that after Civil War’s April 12 release, “I’m not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future”; in 2022 he had already said he wanted to return to writing screenplays only.⁠[16]

Civil War took $25.7 million in its opening weekend, A24’s biggest ever, surpassing the previous record of $13.5 million held by Hereditary; the film had a budget of about $50 million and received a B- CinemaScore.⁠[17]

With former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, whom he met while making Civil War, he co-wrote and co-directed Warfare, a real-time recreation of a 2006 SEAL mission in Iraq drawn from the recollections of Mendoza and his fellow SEALs; it was set to open in the U.S. on April 11, 2025. Civil War had grossed $127 million worldwide to become A24’s second most successful release.⁠[18]

He has credited the film as led by Mendoza, describing himself as more like a driving instructor in the passenger seat. Critic Brianna Zigler called it a “sobering glimpse” of combat.⁠[19]

On May 23, 2025, Bandai Namco Entertainment and A24 announced that he would write and direct a live-action film of FromSoftware’s video game ELDEN RING, produced by Peter Rice with Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich of DNA, among others.⁠[20]

He and Boyle took two scripts to the studios in early 2024, prompting a bidding war in which Sony committed to making 28 Years Later and its sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple back to back; the first had a $60 million budget.⁠[2]

He served only as screenwriter, saying “In some ways, it was a relief”; The Bone Temple was directed by Nia DaCosta.⁠[21]

After 28 Years Later became a hit on its June 2025 release, The Bone Temple, released in January 2026, fell short of box-office expectations; Boyle still planned to reteam with Garland on the trilogy’s third film.⁠[22]

In April 2026 the Elden Ring film announced a cast led by Kit Connor and a March 3, 2028, release date, with production to begin within months. Garland had previously written the video games Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry for Ninja Theory.⁠[23]