Tony Gilroy

Anthony Joseph Gilroy (born September 11, 1956)^[1] is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He wrote the screenplays of The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004), the first two films in the Bourne film franchise, and wrote and directed the fourth film of the franchise, The Bourne Legacy (2012), as well as Michael Clayton (2007) and Duplicity (2009).

Tony Gilroy
Gilroy in 2012 at The Bourne Legacy premiere in Sydney
Born	Anthony Joseph Gilroy (1956-09-11) September 11, 1956 (age 68) New York City, U.S.
Occupations	Screenwriter producer director
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Susan Gilroy
Children	2
Father	Frank D. Gilroy
Relatives	Dan Gilroy (brother) John Gilroy (brother)

He received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and the Best Original Screenplay for Michael Clayton. After co-writing the Star Wars film Rogue One (2016), for which he directed uncredited reshoots^[2], he became the creator, showrunner, head writer and executive producer of its prequel series Andor (2022–present) on Disney+.

Personal life

Gilroy was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Ruth Dorothy (née Gaydos), a sculptor and writer, and Frank D. Gilroy, an award-winning playwright, director, and movie producer, who received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Subject Was Roses in 1965. He is the brother of screenwriter Dan Gilroy and editor John Gilroy.^[3][4] Through his father, he is of Italian, Irish and German descent.^[5] He has two children, Sam and Kathryn, and is married to Susan Gilroy.

Gilroy was raised in Washingtonville, New York.^[6] He graduated from Washingtonville High School in 1974^[7][8] at 16 years old^[9] and attended Boston University for two years before dropping out to concentrate on his music career.^[6][10]

Career

Gilroy in March 2009.

Writing

Gilroy has written many scripts for film, starting with the script for The Cutting Edge in 1992. This was followed by Dolores Claiborne in 1995 and The Devil's Advocate in 1997. He was one of five credited writers on Michael Bay's Armageddon, the highest-grossing film of 1998. Gilroy's next script was Proof of Life in 2000. In 2002, 2003 and 2007 he wrote the screenplays for The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and wrote and directed the next installment of the Bourne series, The Bourne Legacy (2012).

Also in 2007, he wrote and directed the film Michael Clayton, which won an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay,^[11] and was nominated for several Academy Awards including screenplay. In 2009, Gilroy wrote and directed the romantic comedy spy film Duplicity, starring Clive Owen, Julia Roberts and Tom Wilkinson. Gilroy was set, along with The Bourne Ultimatum co-screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, to write the script for the upcoming film Army of Two, based on the video game from EA Montreal.

In September 2013, Gilroy delivered a screenwriting lecture as part of the BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series.^[12]

In 2018, he received a Distinguished Screenwriter Award from the Austin Film Festival.^[13]

Directing

Gilroy's directorial debut was in 2007, when he directed the film Michael Clayton, which his brother John Gilroy edited. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. In addition to its Edgar Award, the film won one Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress (Tilda Swinton). The film was a box office success, grossing over $92 million worldwide.

He also wrote and directed his next film, Duplicity, released March 20, 2009, and starring Clive Owen, Julia Roberts and Tom Wilkinson. He then took over as director of the next entry in the Bourne series as well as co-writing; the film, The Bourne Legacy, was released August 10, 2012, starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, and Albert Finney.

Star Wars

In 2016, Gilroy co-wrote the script to the sci-fi war film Rogue One, directed by Gareth Edwards. It is a prequel to the 1977 classic Star Wars. Gilroy shared writing duties with fellow filmmaker Chris Weitz.

In October 2019, Gilroy returned to the Star Wars franchise to serve as the showrunner for the Disney+ political spy drama Andor, taking over from Stephen Schiff. Gilroy wrote five of the twelve episodes in the series' first season and was also originally set to direct multiple episodes.^[14] However, Toby Haynes took over as the director of these episodes due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.^[15] After multiple delays, Andor premiered on September 21, 2022, and received widespread critical acclaim. It received a total of eight Emmy nominations, including a nomination for the best drama series and nods for writing, directing, cinematography and musical score.^[16]

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1992	The Cutting Edge	No	Yes	No
1995	Dolores Claiborne	No	Yes	No
1996	Extreme Measures	No	Yes	No
1997	The Devil's Advocate	No	Yes	No
1998	Armageddon	No	Adaptation	No
2000	Bait	No	Yes	Executive
	Proof of Life	No	Yes	Executive
2002	The Bourne Identity	No	Yes	No
2004	The Bourne Supremacy	No	Yes	No
2007	The Bourne Ultimatum	No	Yes	No
	Michael Clayton	Yes	Yes	No	Uncredited voice cameo as "Taxi Driver"
2009	Duplicity	Yes	Yes	No
	State of Play	No	Yes	No
2012	The Bourne Legacy	Yes	Yes	No
2014	Nightcrawler	No	No	Yes
2016	Rogue One	No	Yes	No	Uncredited director of reshoots; Uncredited voice cameo as "Rebel Flight Controller"
	The Great Wall	No	Yes	No
2018	Beirut	No	Yes	Yes

Uncredited writing works

Year	Title	Notes
1998	Enemy of the State	[17]
2021	The Woman in the Window	Rewrites for reshoots[18]

Television

Year(s)	Title	Writer	Producer	Notes
1993	For Better and for Worse	Yes	No	Television movie
2015–2016	House of Cards	No	Consulting	26 episodes
2022–present	Andor	Yes	Executive	Creator and executive producer (24 episodes) Writer (8 episodes)

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result
2007	Michael Clayton	Academy Awards	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		BAFTA Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Directors Guild of America	Outstanding Directing - Feature Film	Nominated
		Edgar Awards	Best Motion Picture Screenplay	Won
		Satellite Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion	Nominated
		Writers Guild of America Award	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
2022	Andor	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Drama Series	Nominated
		Peabody Awards	Entertainment	Won