Will Merrick
Birthdate – April 9, 1993 (31 Years Old)
Birthplace – Ledbury, Herefordshire, England, UK
Will Merrick is an editor-turned-director who is part of the “Screenlife movement” of telling movie stories via personal electronic devices such as phones and laptops. Merrick is part of a tight-knit group of USC film alumni, including co-director and co-editor Nick Johnson, producers Natalie Qasabian, Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian, Adam Sidman, Jo Henriquez, and Congyu E., as well as digital film veteran Timur Bekmambetov.
After working as an editor on various film projects, Johnson was a co-lead editor on the Chaganty-directed thriller, Searching (2018), starring John Cho and Debra Messing, which launched the Screenlife trend and earned a remarkable $75.6 million global return on a tiny $880,000 budget. Will Merrick served as co-editor on the Hulu-aired thriller, Run (2020), starring Sarah Paulson and directed and co-written (with Ohanian) by Chaganty.
Merrick’s debut as writer-director (with Johnson) was the Screenlife-style thriller, Missing (2023), following the template established by Searching and co-starring Storm Reid and Nia Long, earning over $26 million by mid-February after a mid-January release.
Personal Details
Will Merrick was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina by parents Bill Merrick and Julia Davidson. Starting in sixth grade, Merrick was home-schooled by his father. Merrick received a scholarship to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, based partly on the number of films he had made on his own as a self-taught filmmaker. During his studies, Merrick was tapped by just-graduated fellow classmate Aneesh Chaganty to edit a spec film for Google Glass. Merrick attended USC from 2011-2015 when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna Cum Laude. He lives in Los Angeles.
Filmography
Missing
(2023)
Silo
Danny (2021)
Some Facts About Will Merrick
Born Filmmaker: According to his parents, Will Merrick began to stage his own homemade movies when he was four years old, and grew up teaching himself how to shoot and edit, while making such early home movies as The Secret Treasure of the Salisbury Prison, and producing how-to YouTube videos explaining his jerry-rigged version of the Steadicam he dubbed “the Merricam.”
Awards
Winner, Best Editing, Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society (2018).
