Alex Winter
Alex Winter began his career as a child actor, spending several years on Broadway with co- starring roles in productions of 'The King & I', 'Peter Pan', and the American premiere of Simon Gray's 'Close of Play' at the Manhattan Theater Club. After completing NYU film school, he went on to have starring roles in several feature films, including Orion's huge hit 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' and its sequel 'Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey', the Warner Brothers smash 'The Lost Boys' and Percy Adlon's 'Rosalie Goes Shopping'.
In the 90's Winter began a busy career of directing commercials and music videos, alongside his narrative work. Winter co-wrote, directed and starred in the hit MTV series, 'The Idiot Box', and the Twentieth Century Fox release 'Freaked', which has been acclaimed by many critics including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, who heralded 'Freaked' on their "Top Ten greatest comedies of the Nineties."
In 2000, Winter wrote and directed 'Fever', released by LionsGate Films. 'Fever' is a psychological thriller starring Henry Thomas, Teri Hatcher, Bill Duke and 'The Departed's' David O' Hara. The film has been invited to film festivals worldwide, including Official Selection in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes. In 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."
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.
Winter founded Trouper Productions, a company that supports his films. In 2019, Winter released two new documentary feature films; The Panama Papers, about the biggest global corruption scandal in history and the journalists who worked in secret and at great risk to break the story. A multiple award-winner, The Panama Papers is executive produced by Laura Poitras, opened to a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is out now on Hulu, Amazon Prime and Epix in the US. Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain, about the rise of bitcoin and the blockchain was released last Fall and is now available on Amazon Prime.
Previous documentary work includes Deep Web, about the online black market Silk Road, and the trial of its creator Ross Ulbricht. The film premiered on the Epix network, opening as the #1 documentary on iTunes and earning a Cinema Eye nomination among several award wins. Deep Web is now available for streaming and VOD. 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, and is available for digital download from all major outlets, free streaming on AOL in the US.
Zappa, the first all-access documentary on the life and times of Frank Zappa was set to premiere at the 2020 SXSW film festival. The Kickstarter campaign for this project was the highest funded documentary in crowdfunding history. Zappa will be released in the U.S. on November 27, 2020, by Magnolia Films.
Winter's Showbiz Kids documentary feature for HBO, produced by frequent collaborator Glen Zipper and Bill Simmons' Ringer Films, premiered July 14th on the network and is now available through HBO GO, HBO NOW, and on HBO via HBO Max and other partners' platforms. The highly anticipated third installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, Bill & Ted Face The Music opened in the U.S. to critical acclaim in August of 2020.