Jon M. Chu
Birthdate: November 2, 1979 (46 Years Old)
Birthplace: Palo Alto, California, USA
Jon M. Chu (birthname: Jonathan Murray Chu) is a director/producer who has become one of Hollywood’s most in-demand filmmakers for dance-based musicals and sequels, but became an industry phenomenon as director of Warner Bros.’ wildly embraced comedybased on Kevin Kwan’s best-seller, Crazy Rich Asians (2018), the first major studio release to have a complete cast (led by Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina and Ken Jeong) and creative team of Asian Americans, and which grossed $239 million.
Chu made his directorial debut on Disney’s hit sequel, Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), with Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Will Kemp, and Cassie Ventura, and its excellent $151 million return on a $17.5 million budget set up Chu as a standard-bearer of the Step Up series, first as director of the sequel, Step Up 3D (2010), which was the biggest grosser in the series at $159.2 million (on $30 million costs), and then as executive producer on the Scott Speer-directed Step Up: Revolution (2012)—which grossed $140 million on $33 million costs--and Step Up: All In (2014), earning over $86 million on $35 million costs, and then Chu was producer of the China-based sequel, Step Up Year of the Dance (2019) aka Step Up China, directed by Ron Yuan.
Chu not only kept his involvement in the Step Up project but became the go-to concert movie director for pop star Justin Bieber, with a pair of commercially successful concert movies for MTV Films, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011), grossing nearly $100 million, and Justin Bieber’s Believe (2013), earning over $32 million worldwide. Chu landed his first directorial job on a studio-backed (Paramount Pictures) narrative drama with Hasbro’s critically lambasted sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), co-starring D.J. Cotrona, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki, and Jonathan Pryce, and which grossed $375.7 million globally.
Jon M. Chu was director/producer of Universal Pictures’ musical drama, Jem and the Holograms (2015), backed in part by producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Pictures and co-starring Aubrey Peeples, Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Ryan Guzman, Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis, but which was Chu’s first box office failure ($2.3 million gross against $5 million costs). Chu returned to commercial hit status as director of Lionsgate Films’ highly successful sequel, Now You See Me 2 (2016), starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, and Michael Caine, and delivering a global take of $334 million; during that same year, Chu was producer only on Dance Camp (2016), directed by Bert & Bertie and released by YouTube Red.
Chu then hit it out of the park as director of Crazy Rich Asians (2018). It stayed in the Warner Bros. stable as director of the big-screen version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ hit stage musical, In the Heights (2021), with Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Miranda, Jimmy Smits, and Melissa Barrera, and though Chu earned terrific reviews for his work, the movie proved a box office disappointment grossing only $45 million on a $55 million budget.
Chu solidified his position as one of Hollywood’s major directors of musicals as helmer on Universal Pictures’ highly anticipated two-film Wizard of Oz adaptation, Wicked (2024) and Wicked For Good (2025), co-starring Cynthia Erivo (as Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda the Good Witch of the North), with Jeff Goldblum (as the Wizard), Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey and Bowen Yang. Wicked received ten Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and grossed $756.4 million worldwide.
Jon M. Chu was director and a producer of what he considered his “passion project”—a live-action theatrical feature version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s 1973 musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (date to be announced), adapted for the screen by co-writers Dana Fox and Daniel Goldfarb, with Webber also as producer and composer (with lyricist Rice) of new songs for the movie, and produced by Amazon MGM Studios/Electric Somewhere Co./Jealous Brother Productions. Chu co-directed (with animator Jill Culton as co-director) the Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s animated musical feature version of Dr. Seuss’ 1990 picture book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (2028), adapted from Dr. Seuss by screenwriter Rob Lieber, with songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a cast led by Ariana Grande and Josh Gad.
Personal life
Jon M. Chu was born in Palo Alto, California, and raised in Los Altos, California, by parents Ruth and Lawrence (restaurant owners). Chu has one brother, Larry. Chu graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied film and television production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Chu is married to Kristin Hodge; the couple has two children, Willow and Jonathan. Chu’s height is 5’ 10”. Chu’s estimated net worth is $25 million.
Jon M. Chu Movies
Director
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Previous (5)
- 2021 |
In the Heights
In Washington Heights, a sympathetic New York bodega owner saves every penny every day as he imagines and sings about a better life.
- 2018 |
Crazy Rich Asians
This contemporary romantic comedy based on a global bestseller follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family.
- 2016 |
Now You See Me 2
The Four Horsemen resurface, and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet.
- 2015 |
Jem and the Holograms
As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden.
- -- | G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Producer
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Previous (1)
- 2015 |
Jem and the Holograms
As a small-town girl catapults from underground video sensation to global superstar, she and her three sisters begin a journey of discovering that some talents are too special to keep hidden.
Actor
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Previous (1)
- 2019 |
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
asSelf
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Pamela B. Green's energetic film about pioneer filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché is both a tribute and a detective story, tracing the circumstances by which this extraordinary artist faded from memory and the path toward her reclamation.
Facts About Jon M. Chu
Early Awards: Jon M. Chu won several awards early in his career, including the Kodak Student Filmmaker Award, the Princess Grace Award, the Anti-Defamation League’s Dore Schary Award, the Jack Nicholson Award for Directing, the East-West Players Visionary Award, and an award from IFP/West’s Project: Involve.
Let’s Dance: Chu belongs to a dance crew called AC/DC (Adam/Chu Dance Crew) and has incorporated dance into most of his movies as director.
Discovered: Jon M. Chu was discovered by Steven Spielberg after watching Chu’s USC student film When the Kids Are Away (2002).
Author, Author: Chu is co-author (with Jeremy McCarter) of Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen, published in 2024.
