Alex Garland

Alex Garland
Garland at SXSW in 2024
Born	Alexander Medawar Garland (1970-05-26) 26 May 1970 London, England
Occupations	Author screenwriter director
Years active	1996–present
Spouse	Paloma Baeza
Children	2
Relatives	Nicholas Garland (father) Peter Medawar (maternal grandfather) Jean Medawar (maternal grandmother)

Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English author, screenwriter, and director. He rose to prominence with his novel The Beach (1996). He received praise for writing the Danny Boyle films 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007), as well as Never Let Me Go (2010) and Dredd (2012). In video games, he co-wrote Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) and was a story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).

Garland made his directorial debut when he wrote and directed the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (2014). He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and won him three British Independent Film Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best British Independent Film for the film. His second movie, Annihilation (2018), an adaptation of the 2014 novel of the same name, was a critical success. He wrote, directed and executive produced the FX miniseries Devs (2020) followed by the horror thriller Men (2022), dystopian action thriller Civil War (2024), and the war film Warfare (2025). The three films were produced by A24.

Early life and education

Alexander Medawar Garland was born in London on 26 May 1970, the son of psychologist Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. Alexander has a younger brother and two older paternal half-siblings. He is the maternal grandson of writer Jean Medawar and Nobel Prize-winning biologist Peter Medawar, the latter of whom was born in Brazil to an English mother and Lebanese father.

Alexander Garland was educated at University College School in Hampstead, England and later graduated from the University of Manchester in Manchester with an art history degree.

Career

Novels

Garland's first novel, The Beach, was published in 1996. Based on his travels across Europe and Thailand, it tells the story of a young English backpacker who discovers an unspoiled seashore occupied by a community of like-minded backpackers. The novel is noted for its references to drug culture, sequences of hallucinations, and unique depictions of excess and utopia. The Beach was initially met with positive reviews, and with a spreading word of mouth response, the novel grew in popularity; it led some critics to regard Garland a key voice of Generation X. He would later speak of his discomfort with the fame The Beach brought him. The Beach has been translated into 25 different languages and sold close to 700,000 copies by the start of 1999. It was developed into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2003, the novel was Ranked 103 in BBC's The Big Read poll.

Garland's The Tesseract (1998) is a non-linear narrative with several interwoven characters, set in Manila, Philippines. The novel is characterized by a post-modernist narrative style and structure. It explores several themes such as love and violence through each character's circumstance and context of surroundings as well as seemingly inconsequential actions and the repercussions of those actions on other characters. The Tesseract was not a critical or commercial success, but it too was adapted into a film.

Throughout his work, Garland has expressed his love of travel (particularly backpacking) and his love of Manila, much of which influenced his work.

Film

In 2002, Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy. He has said that the script was influenced by 1970s zombie films and English science fiction like The Day of the Triffids. Video games such as the Resident Evil series also served as an influence for 28 Days Later, with Garland crediting the first game for revitalizing the zombie genre. Inspiration for the "Rage" virus came from real-world infections such as Ebola and filoviruses. He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film.

In 2005, Garland wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of Halo. D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, although the film was later canceled. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine, which was his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel of 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd, an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD. In 2018, Karl Urban, who played the eponymous role in the film, stated that it was Garland who deserved credit for also directing Dredd.

Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival, and earned Garland a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Garland's second film, Annihilation (2018), was based on Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 science fiction novel of the same name. Garland has described it as "an adaptation [that] was a memory of the book," rather than book-referenced screenwriting, to capture the "dream like nature" and tone of his reading experience. Production began in 2016, and the film was released in February 2018.

In January 2021, Garland was hired to direct his third film, Men, starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. The film follows a young woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. Released in May 2022, it received generally positive reviews, though its narrative approach received some criticism. Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum placed Men on his Best Films of 2022 list.

In April 2022, it was announced that Garland worked with A24 again for his fourth feature, Civil War, an action epic starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and previous collaborators Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny. The film was released on 12 April 2024. Garland will reunite with Boyle to write 28 Years Later, the long-gestating sequel to 28 Days Later, which is intended to launch a new trilogy of zombie films. Murphy will serve as an executive producer. The film is set to be released by Sony.

In February 2024, it was revealed that Charles Melton was in talks to star in Garland's upcoming untitled war film with A24. This project marks the second collaboration between Garland and Ray Mendoza, who served as the military supervisor for Civil War. The pair wrote and will co-direct the film. The following month, Joseph Quinn, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Kit Connor, Cosmo Jarvis, Will Poulter and Finn Bennett joined the ensemble cast, and the film was revealed to be titled Warfare. The same month, Garland stated that he would not direct any films in the "foreseeable future" after the release of Civil War and that his co-directorial work on Warfare was "more of a supporting character" to Mendoza's.

Television

Garland wrote, served as executive producer, and directed the eight-episode miniseries Devs about the "mysterious ongoings at a tech company", for FX. The series was greenlit in August 2018, and premiered 5 March 2020 on FX on Hulu. It stars Ex Machina and Annihilation actress Sonoya Mizuno, alongside Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alison Pill. Spaeny, who did not audition for the role as Garland had wanted her specifically for it said that Devs was short for Development, and the series would explore the idea of the multiverse.

In May 2022, a television series based on Never Let Me Go was optioned at FX, to be executive produced by Garland, who previously wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film adaptation of the same name. It would have premiered on Hulu in the United States, Star in other territories and Star+ in Latin America with Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman and Kelly Macdonald starring. However in February 2023, it was announced that FX had cancelled the series before production began.

Video games

Garland and Tameem Antoniades co-wrote the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. They won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain. Garland also served as a story supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013.

Personal life

Garland is married to English-Mexican actress Paloma Baeza, with whom he has a son and a daughter. He has described himself as being an atheist.

Bibliography

• The Beach (1996)
• The Tesseract (1998)
• The Coma (2004)

Collaborators

Since he made his directorial debut, Garland has worked with several actors and crew members multiple times.

Collaborator	Ex Machina	Annihilation	Devs	Men	Civil War	Total
Geoff Barrow Composer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Michelle Day Set decorator	Y	Y	Y	Y		4
Mark Digby Production designer	Y	Y	Y	Y		4
Karl Glusman Actor			Y		Y	2
Glenn Freemantle Sound designer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Jin Ha Actor			Y		Y	2
Rob Hardy Cinematographer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Oscar Isaac Actor	Y	Y				2
Andrew Macdonald Producer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Francine Maisler Casting director	Y	Y			Y	3
Stephen McKinley Henderson Actor			Y		Y	2
Sonoya Mizuno Actor	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Nick Offerman Actor			Y		Y	2
Allon Reich Producer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Jake Roberts Editor			Y	Y	Y	3
Ben Salisbury Composer	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	5
Cailee Spaeny Actor			Y		Y	2

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
2002	28 Days Later	No	Yes	No
2007	Sunshine	No	Yes	No
	28 Weeks Later	No	Uncredited	Executive
2010	Never Let Me Go	No	Yes	Executive
2012	Dredd	Uncredited	Yes	Yes
2014	Ex Machina	Yes	Yes	No
2018	Annihilation	Yes	Yes	No
2022	Men	Yes	Yes	No
2024	Civil War	Yes	Yes	No
2025	28 Years Later	No	Yes	Yes	Post-production
	Warfare	Yes	Yes	No
2026	28 Years Later: The Bone Temple	No	Yes	Yes	Filming

Other credits

• The Beach (2000), cartographer, based on his novel of the same name
• The Tesseract (2003), based on his novel of the same name
• Big Game (2014), executive producer

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Notes
2020	Devs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Also creator

Video games

• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010), co-writer
• DmC: Devil May Cry (2013), story supervisor

Theatre

• The Coma (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2006), based on his novel of the same name

Critical reception

Title	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic
Ex Machina	92% (284 ratings)	78 (42 reviews)
Annihilation	88% (327 ratings)	79 (51 reviews)
Devs	82% (90 ratings)	71 (32 reviews)
Men	69% (255 ratings)	65 (55 reviews)
Civil War	81% (391 ratings)	75 (60 reviews)

Awards and nominations

Year	Film	Award	Category	Result
2002	28 Days Later	Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form	Nominated
		Saturn Award	Best Writing	Nominated
2010	Never Let Me Go	British Independent Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Evening Standard British Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Saturn Award	Best Writing	Nominated
	Enslaved: Odyssey to the West	Writers' Guild of Great Britain	Best Continuing Drama	Won
2015	Ex Machina	Academy Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Writing, Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Austin Film Critics Association	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		AACTA International Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best New Filmmaker	Nominated
		British Independent Film Awards	Best British Independent Film	Won
			Best Director	Won
			Best Screenplay	Won
		Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Most Promising Filmmaker	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film	Won
		European Film Awards	Best European Screenwriter	Nominated
		Florida Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Gérardmer Film Festival	Jury Prize	Won
		Imagine Film Festival	Silver Scream Award	Won
		London Critics Circle Film Awards	Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker	Nominated
		Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Toronto Film Critics Association Awards	Best First Feature	Won
		Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Saturn Awards	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Writing	Nominated

External links

• Alex Garland at IMDb
• Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland
• Beach Boy: Salon interview with Alex Garland
• "Alex Garland is writing Judge Dredd"