David Ayer
Birthdate: January 18, 1968 (58 Years Old)
Birthplace: Champaign, Illinois, USA
David Ayer is a well-respected director, writer, and producer, specializing in police, crime, and military-set dramas and thrillers. Ayer is one of the rare Hollywood filmmakers who amassed his pre-filmmaking experiences outside of school and instead in the hard-knock settings of South Central Los Angeles and submarine stints in the U.S. Navy.
This background led to his first produced screenplays for the submarine thriller, U-571 (2000), (with director Jonathan Mostow and Sam Montgomery as credited co-writers); Training Day (2001), which earned star Denzel Washington the best actor Oscar, and which Ayer took a co-producer credit.
He also worked on the mega-hit franchise starter, The Fast and the Furious (2001), starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster; the Kurt Russell-starring LAPD drama, Dark Blue (2002), which Ayer adapted from a screen story by famed crime novelist James Ellroy; and another LAPD drama, the Clark Johnson-directed big-screen version of S.W.A.T. (2003), with David McKenna as credited co-writer, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and Jeremy Renner.
Marking his debut as director/writer/producer, David Ayer made his most overtly autobiographical movie with his South Central Los Angeles-set drama, Harsh Times (2005), starring Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Eva Longoria, Terry Crewes, and J.K. Simmons, and which made a small profit for MGM with a $6 million return after a Toronto film festival premiere.
Unlike in the case of Dark Blue, Ayer took on an Ellroy screenplay (with credited co-writers Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss) as director only of another LAPD drama, Street Kings (2008), starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, and Common, earning a strong $66.5 million gross in a Fox Searchlight release.
Ayer’s second movie as director/writer/producer was one of his most profitable ($58 million gross on $15-million costs) and his latest in a remarkable string of LAPD dramas, End of Watch (2012), starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, with Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo, and David Harbour.
David Ayer pulled off an unusual double-bill of movies in one year as director/writer/producer with Sabotage (2014), delivering poor box office despite Arnold Schwarzenegger leading a cast of fine actors (Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams, Terrence Howard, Joe Manganiello, Harold Perrineau, Martin Donovan, Josh Holloway, and Mireille Enos); and followed by Ayer’s first-period movie, the WWII-set Fury (2014), inspired by the experiences of Ayer’s wartime relatives and starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Eastwood and profiting for Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures with a $212 million global gross.
As writer-director, Ayer made his first comic superhero movie with the third edition of the DC Extended Universe, Suicide Squad (2016), featuring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and earning a potent $747 million worldwide for Warner Bros./DC Films.
After reuniting with Smith for the LAPD/sci-fi mashup for Netflix, Bright (2017), David Ayer was director/writer/producer of the widely-panned Los Angeles crime thriller, The Tax Collector (2020), with Bobby Soto, LaBeouf, and George Lopez, which delivered only $1.3 million in grosses on a $30 million budget.
Ayer was director-producer of one of his few movies not set in Los Angeles, the revenge thriller The Beekeeper (2024), starring Jason Statham, John Hutcherson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, and Jeremy Irons, and released by Amazon MGM Studios.
Ayer, as director and co-writer/co-producer (with co-writer/co-producer Sylvester Stallone) continued to collaborate with star-producer Statham for another revenge thriller, A Working Man (2025), based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel, Levon’s Trade, and featuring Michael Peña, David Harbour and Jason Flemyng, and which was once again released wide by Amazon MGM Studios and produced in part by Ayer’s company, Cedar Park Entertainment.
Ayer was director/writer/executive producer of Dirty Dozen (date to be announced), Warner Bros.’ long-anticipated remake of director Robert Aldrich’s 1967 WWII action drama, The Dirty Dozen, with the new version co-written by Josh Appelbaum and E.M. Nathanson.
David Ayer took on the roles of director and producer, without his usual writing credit, for the Alaskan survival adventure Heart of the Beast (date to be announced), reuniting Ayer with star and fellow producer Brad Pitt, and also J.K. Simmons, which was written by Cameron Alexander.
Ayer tried his hand at another remake, writing the screenplay for a new version of Commando (date to be announced), inspired by the 1985 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, while Ayer was producer only (via his production company, Cedar Park Entertainment) of the true-story crime thriller, North Hollywood (date to be announced), directed by Albert Hughes and written by Russell Gewirtz.
Personal life
David Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois, and was raised in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Bethesda, Maryland, by his parents. Ayer was kicked out of his home by his parents when he was a teenager, leading to him living precariously (picking up jobs as a house painter and electrician) with his cousin in crime-ridden neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Ayer dropped out of high school and never attended an institution of higher education. Instead, Ayer enlisted in the U.S. Navy and joined the Navy’s submarine force as a sonar technician on such ships as the USS Haddo. Ayer was married to Mireya Ayer from 2002 to 2017; the couple has four children, Cynthia, Robert, Jason, and Emily. Ayer’s height is 6’ 2 ½”. Ayer’s estimated net worth is $10 million.
Known For
Heart of the Beast
Director (2026)
David Ayer Movies
Director
Collapse
Previous (4)
- 2024 |
The Beekeeper
A kind-hearted landlady commits suicide after falling victim to a phishing scam, leading former "Beekeeper" operative Adam Clay to set out on a brutal campaign for revenge upon those responsible.
- -- | Sabotage
- -- | Fury
- -- | End of Watch
Producer
Collapse
Previous (6)
- 2025 |
A Working Man
Levon Cade left his profession behind to work construction and be a good dad to his daughter. But when a local girl vanishes, he's asked to return to the skills that made him a mythic figure in the shadowy world of counter-terrorism.
- 2024 |
The Beekeeper
A kind-hearted landlady commits suicide after falling victim to a phishing scam, leading former "Beekeeper" operative Adam Clay to set out on a brutal campaign for revenge upon those responsible.
- 2020 |
The Tax Collector
A "tax collector" working for a local crime lord finds his family's safety compromised when the rival of his boss shows up in L.A. and upends the business.
- -- | Sabotage
- -- | Fury
- -- | End of Watch
Writer
Collapse
Previous (5)
- 2020 |
The Tax Collector
A "tax collector" working for a local crime lord finds his family's safety compromised when the rival of his boss shows up in L.A. and upends the business.
- 2016 |
Suicide Squad
A secret government agency recruits some of the most dangerous incarcerated super-villains to form a defensive task force. Their first mission: save the world from the apocalypse.
- -- | Sabotage
- -- | Fury
- -- | End of Watch
Facts About David Ayer
Mean Streets: Surviving on the streets of South Central Los Angeles as a teenager kicked out of his family home provided David Ayer with many of the stories and ideas for his movies, which are often set in Los Angeles.
