Colin Trevorrow Biography

Colin Trevorrow was born on September 13, 1976, in San Francisco, California, in an upper middle-class family amidst a highly artistic environment. His father was a musician who performed in a local country music band, while his mother was a photographer. Colin is a Jewish from his mother’s side and a Christian from his father’s. He has a brother named Josh.

Soon after Colin was born, his family moved to Oakland, where his mother, along with photography, also operated a day-care centre. Mostly owing to his parents’ artistic pursuits, Colin developed a love for the art, but decided to opt for filmmaking instead of pursuing photography or music like his parents.

He began making short films early on in his teenage years. Along with that, in his childhood, he was also a regular singer at the chorus of the San Francisco Opera.

While he was growing up, he became a big fan of director Steven Spielberg’s films, who would eventually become the person to help him get his big Hollywood break.

Throughout his high school years, while attending the Piedmont High School, he kept making short films and eventually honed his skills to a level that he was honoured with awards at the San Francisco Youth Film Festival and Mill Valley Film Festival.

After graduating from high school. he enrolled into the New York’s famous film school, Tisch School of the Arts, in the mid-1990s. He graduated in 1999.

Following his graduation from the Tisch School, Colin Trevorrow began his professional filmmaking career, starting with the 2002 short film titled Home Base, which was a relationship drama about a young man who sleeps with his ex’s mother as a form of revenge. The comedy drama film received a good response. Ever since the film was uploaded online, it has been watched by more than 20 million people worldwide.

In 2004, he came out with a documentary film titled Reality Show, which centred around the doomed production of a reality television show, which was also a satire on the American television industry. It was Colin’s first film that received a theatrical release, albeit limited.

In 2006, he worked on a script called Tester and sold it off to the DreamWorks Studios, one of the biggest film studios in Hollywood. Around the same time, he got in touch with his friend from the college years, named Derek Connolly, and began writing a script with him. He later said that he found it best to co-work on screenplays rather than working alone.

They both had come in touch again after years while working together as interns on Saturday Night Live. They would go on writing screenplays together for many of Colin’s future projects.

Their first screenplay written together was titled Cocked and Loaded, which was buddy-cop genre of story. However, Colin’s first feature project which got materialized into a full-fledged film was titled Safety Not Guaranteed. The film was based around the advertisement industry and fell into the romantic comedy genre of films. Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza played the lead roles in the film, which was directed by Colin, and was released in 2012.

The film received its worldwide premier at the Sundance Film Festival and met with rave reviews, with almost all the critics showering praises on the quirky screenplay. The film received nominations at the Chicago Film Critics Association Award and won Colin Trevorrow an Independent Spirit Award for his screenplay.

The film was made on a very low budget, and had made the right waves, making the executives at the Walt Disney Company to get in touch with him to work on the screenplay for the remake of a 1986 film titled Flight of the Navigator. Colin worked with Derek on the screenplay, but the film is yet to be officially announced.

He was also one of the few directors who were strongly considered to direct the Marvel superhero film titled Guardians of the Galaxy.

His 2012 indie film Safety Not Guaranteed had made waves in Hollywood and got the attention of the legendary director/producer Steven Spielberg, who was planning to reboot his hit 1990s film franchise Jurassic Park. Derek was hired to direct the new film, which was big break for Colin considering he was just one indie film old.

Colin was hired to direct the film in 2013, which was being planned for many years without any success. The film takes the narrative forward from where Jurassic Park left and continued the story of a real-dinosaur themed park. The film, titled Jurassic World was premiered in Paris and received an official worldwide release in 2015.

The film received mixed reviews from the critics, but despite that, the film became a major success, becoming one of the most successful films of the year. Colin Trevorrow and Derek were later hired to write a sequel, titled Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Along with serving as a writer of the sequel, Colin also served as an executive producer of the film, which was released in 2018 and was a box office success.

In 2017, he wrote and directed the Naomi Watts starrer drama film titled The Book of Henry, which was written by Gregg Hurwitz. The film was criticized heavily for its story and direction, but was praised for the performances. However, Colin still thinks it was a pretty good film.

He also wrote another screenplay with Derek, for a science fiction film titled ‘Intelligent Life’, for which DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg came on-board as producers. But the film remained unmade until now.

He was also initially hired to direct the Star Wars film titled ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ and began writing the script with Derek. However, Lucasfilm, the producers, remained heavily dissatisfied with the script and hired J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio to rework on it. Later, Colin was also removed as the film’s director due to creative differences.

In March 2018, it was confirmed that Colin was all set to direct the next Jurassic Park film titled Jurassic World: Dominion, which is slated to be released in 2022.

Despite a thriving film career in Los Angeles, Colin Trevorrow chose to live in England with his family. He has a wife, Isabelle, and two children.

He said that during his formative years, he didn’t watch too many films. Instead, he watched the films he liked multiple times.

He does not watch too many horror films, with science fiction being his preferred genre to work in.