Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Spurlock (November 7, 1970–May 23, 2024) was an American documentary filmmaker, television producer, and writer whose best-known film, Super Size Me (2004), turned a self-imposed fast-food experiment into a widely debated critique of corporate food marketing and diet. Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, he attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1993. He later founded the production company Warrior Poets and used it to make documentaries and television programs. For Super Size Me, Spurlock ate only food sold by McDonald’s for 30 consecutive days, accepted an offer to “super-size” a meal whenever one was made, and had physicians monitor his health. The film records weight gain, changes in blood measures, mood problems, and the role of advertising aimed at children. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Spurlock received the festival’s directing prize for documentary. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and made him a prominent figure in the 2000s nonfiction-film boom. His subsequent work continued to examine commerce and media through participatory reporting. In Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), he traveled through countries in the Middle East and elsewhere while investigating attitudes toward the al-Qaeda leader and U.S. foreign policy. POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011) documents his effort to finance a film through product placement and sponsorship, making the business arrangements part of its subject. He also directed Mansome (2012), about ideas of masculinity, and One Direction: This Is Us (2013), a concert documentary about the British-Irish band. From 2013 to 2016, Spurlock hosted and produced CNN’s Inside Man, a series in which he immersed himself in subjects including medical marijuana, gun culture, and poverty. He directed Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! (2019), which follows his attempt to open a chicken restaurant while examining industrial poultry production and food-label claims. The production, funded through Kickstarter, addresses antibiotics, franchising, and the marketing language used to create perceptions of healthier fast food among restaurant customers and investors alike. In December 2017, Spurlock published a statement acknowledging past infidelity and a sexual-harassment settlement and saying he had been accused of rape after a college sexual encounter. He resigned from Warrior Poets that month. Super Size Me 2 was shelved after the statement but was later released. Spurlock died in New York on May 23, 2024, aged 53, from complications of cancer.