Sam Levinson

Sam Levinson is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and actor, born January 8, 1985, in the United States. He is the son of director Barry Levinson, whose films include Rain Man and Good Morning, Vietnam, and Diana Rhodes, a production designer. Levinson appeared as an actor in several projects before establishing himself primarily behind the camera, including Barry Levinson’s 1992 film Toys and the 2001 comedy Bandits. His feature directorial debut, Another Happy Day, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The drama centers on Lynn, played by Ellen Barkin, as family tensions surface around her estranged son’s wedding. The ensemble also includes Ezra Miller, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Haden Church, George Kennedy, and Michael Nardelli. Barkin received the festival’s Best Actress award for her performance. Levinson wrote the film as well as directing it. Levinson’s second feature, the 2018 black comedy Assassination Nation, follows four teenage girls in the fictional town of Salem after a mass data breach exposes residents’ private messages and images. Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, and Abra play the central friends, while Bella Thorne, Bill Skarsgård, Joel McHale, Maude Apatow, Colman Domingo, and Anika Noni Rose also appear. The film premiered at Sundance and was released by Neon. He reached a vastly wider television audience as creator, writer, director, and executive producer of HBO’s Euphoria. Adapted from an Israeli series of the same name, the drama debuted in 2019 and is narrated by Rue Bennett, a high-school student in recovery from drug addiction, played by Zendaya. Its principal cast includes Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn, Maude Apatow as Lexi Howard, Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez, Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard, Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs, and Colman Domingo as Ali. Zendaya won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Euphoria in 2020 and 2022. Levinson also directed the 2020 and 2021 pandemic-era specials focused respectively on Rue and Jules. In 2021, Levinson co-wrote and directed Malcolm & Marie, a two-character drama starring Zendaya and John David Washington. The film was shot in black and white at the Caterpillar House in Carmel, California, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He later co-created HBO’s The Idol with Abel Tesfaye and Reza Fahim. Starring Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp, it premiered in 2023 and ended after one season. Levinson also wrote the screenplay for Deep Water, Adrian Lyne’s 2022 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel.