Ari Aster
Birthdate: July 15, 1986 (39 Years Old)
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Ari Aster has developed a following as a filmmaker of extremely dark narratives pivoting on personal crises and extreme psychological (and occasionally supernatural) conditions, starting with his acclaimed horror debut as director/writer, Hereditary (2018), starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd and Gabriel Byrne, and scooping up a big $87.8 million return for A24 on a $10 million budget after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Aster quickly followed this success with another as director/writer, the folk horror movie Midsommar (2019), with Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, and Will Poulter, delivering a solid $48.5 million box office for producer-distributor A24.
Aster expanded his responsibilities as a lead producer (with his regular producer partner Lars Knudsen) as well as director/writer of the sprawling comic drama and his first non-horror movie, Beau Is Afraid (2023), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Parker Posey and Patti LuPone, dividing critics (who generally praised it) and audiences (who stayed away) and proving the first commercial failure for Aster with producer-distributor A24 ($12 million gross against $35 million costs).
Aster was director/writer/producer of his second movie in a row starring Phoenix and his first neo-Western, Eddington (2025), co-starring Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, and Clifton Collins Jr., premiering in competition in the main selection at the Cannes Film Festival and released wide by A24.
Ari Aster has also served as a producer on several movies he hasn’t directed or wrote, including director/writer/editor Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario (2023) and The Drama (date to be announced); Yorgos Lanthimos’s sci-fi comedy, Bugonia (2025); animator Don Hertzfeld’s Antarctica (date to be announced); director Hiro Murai’s Bushido (date to be announced); director Lance Oppenheim’s crime thriller, Primetime (date to be announced); director/writer Henry Dunham’s crime movie, Enemies (date to be announced); director/writer Masha Ko’s horror movie, The Looming (date to be announced).
Personal life
Ari Aster was born in New York City and raised in New York, Chester in England and Santa Fe, New Mexico by his mother (poet) and father (jazz musician and jazz club owner). Aster has one younger brother. Aster graduated from high school and studied film at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, from which he graduated in 2008. Aster then successfully applied (with a short 2008 film, Tale of Two Tims) to the American Film Institute’s Conservatory graduate program, earning a Master of Fine Arts in directing.
Ari Aster Movies
Director
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Previous (4)
- 2025 |
- 2023 |
Beau is Afraid
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
- 2019 |
- 2018 |
Hereditary
A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.
Facts About Ari Aster
Childhood Condition: Ari Aster suffered from a stuttering condition as a child.
Influences: Aster has noted that following films that most influenced him: Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Repulsion (1965); Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ (1963); Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001); John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994); Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993); Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (1991); Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years (2015); Michael Powell’s and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death (1946); and Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) and Fanny and Alexander (1982).
