Paul Feig

Paul Feig created Freaks and Geeks, and had he done nothing else the eighteen episodes would still be the thing people brought up. It is a high-school show with no interest in aspiration: nobody gets the girl, nobody wins the game, and the humiliations are observed rather than punished. Born in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1962, he had spent the preceding years acting in other people's comedies, most visibly as a camp counsellor in Heavyweights and as a teacher on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

The reinvention came in 2011. Bridesmaids gave him a hit and a method: put very funny women inside a studio comedy structure, then let scenes run well past the point where a tighter director would cut. The Heat and Spy followed, and Spy is the best of them, an action comedy that is properly plotted rather than a string of riffs. He works with Melissa McCarthy more than with anyone else.

Since then the record is mixed and interesting. Ghostbusters (2016) was swallowed by the argument surrounding it. A Simple Favor found a register nobody expected from him, glossy and mean, and got a sequel in 2025. Last Christmas and The School for Good and Evil did not work. The Housemaid arrived in 2025, with a follow-up already scheduled. He holds Emmy nominations for writing on Freaks and Geeks and for producing and directing on The Office.