Arturo Perez Jr.
Birthplace – Mexico City, Mexico
Arturo Perez Jr. is a diverse Mexican-born filmmaker who works across multiple media, ranging from feature films to music videos for such artists as The Killers, The Lumineers, Edward Sharpe, and the Magnetic Zeroes. Perez Jr.’s debut feature as director/writer/producer/editor was the non-fiction film, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (2008), set in San Francisco.
Perez Jr. later co-directed (with Kenneth A. La Barre) the music documentary feature, McCartney: Grand Central (2018), capturing Paul McCartney performing live in New York City. Perez Jr. collaborated extensively with the Paris-based video collective, La Blogothèque, including an acclaimed video for Justin Timberlake’s “Say Something.”
Perez Jr. was the co-creator, with his wife Samantha Jayne, of Quarter Life Poetry (2019), a limited series aired as part of FX’s 2020 anthology show, Cake, and based on Jayne’s book, Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke and Hangry, published by Grand Central Publishing in 2016.
Before its presentation on FX, episodes of the series first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Arturo Perez Jr. co-directed (with Jayne) the Tina Fey-written screenplay version of her book for the Broadway musical Mean Girls (2024), produced by Lorne Michaels and Fey and with the ensemble of Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp, Auli’I Cravalho, Fey, Tim Meadows, Jenna Fischer, Busy Phillips, and Jon Hamm, and released by Paramount Pictures.
Personal Details
Arturo Perez Jr. was born and raised by his parents in Mexico City until he was eight years old when his family (including his sisters) moved to the United States.
Filmography
Mean Girls
(2024)
Some Facts About Arturo Perez Jr.
What’s in a Name?: After being humiliated in his elementary school class in his newly adopted United States, Mexican-born Arturo Perez Jr. wanted to be called “Art.” And, then, when he became a professional filmmaker, he reclaimed his original “Arturo” and added “Jr.” at the end to honor his father.
Awards
Nominee, Best Director, iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards (2018); Nominee, Best Director, MTV Video Music Awards (2018).
