Biography
American writer, director and producer, Phil Lord makes up half of a film and television making duo with Christopher Miller whose works included the "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" movies, "21 Jump Street" (2011), and "The Lego Movie" (2013). This string of successes made them among the most commercially viable filmmakers of the early 2010s. Lord was born on July 12, 1975 in Miami, Florida. A 1997 graduate of Dartmouth College, Lord met Miller while the two were in college. Lord and Miller first broke into the entertainment industry when they landed a pair of recurring roles in the Lea Thompson sitcom "Caroline in the City" (NBC 1995-99). Meanwhile, Lord and Miller began their careers as writers on "Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane" (The WB, 1999-2000), a short-lived sitcom that starred Selma Blair and Michael Rosenbaum. Although Lord and Miller's early days were filled with short-lived roles and plenty of failures -- including a failed drawing test for the "The Rugrats Movie" -- the duo continued to work on their ideas, including an animated series about a high school populated by clones of famous historical figures that they pitched to several networks. Their first break occurred when Lord and Miller convinced MTV to turn their idea into a series. "Clone High" (MTV 2002-03) was the result, with Lord and Miller working on multiple fronts as writer, producer, director and voice actor on the animated series. Although "Clone High" only lasted one season, it proved to be a turning point in their careers. Although their next project, the culture-clash sitcom "Luis" (Fox 2003) was almost immediately cancelled after its debut, they jumped aboard a new sitcom called "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS 2005-2014). The show became a hit, with Lord and Miller credited as the writers of the episodes "Belly Full of Turkey" and "The Sweet Taste of Liberty" and co-executive producers on 17 episodes of the show's first season. Lord and Miller pounced on the opportunities that quickly sprouted. They made their feature film directorial debut with "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (2009), a computer animated science fiction comedy based on a children's book about a scientist's weather machine gone horribly awry. Starring the voices of Bill Hader and Anna Faris, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" was a critical and commercial success. It was nominated for a couple of Annie Awards and a Best Animated feature nod at the 67th Golden Globe Awards. The duo followed "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with "21 Jump Street" (2011), a feature film reboot of an old 1980s television series that starred Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, "21 Jump Street" was a surprise success. The duo returned to direct "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" (2013) and served as executive producers on former "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ) cast member Andy Samberg's police sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (Fox 2013-). Lord and Miller had their next blockbuster success with "The Lego Movie" (2013), an animated feature with an all-star cast that included Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell and Elizabeth Banks. (The pair served as producers for the film's sequels, including "The Lego Batman Movie" (2017) and "The Lego Ninjago Movie" (2017), but didn't write or direct them.) After directing the sequel "22 Jump Street" (2014), Lord and Miller returned to TV as executive producers of "The Last Man on Earth" (Fox 2015- ), a quirky sitcom starring Will Forte and Kristen Schaal as the heads of a band of survivors of an unnamed apocalypse. The part-animated dysfunctional-family sitcom "Son of Zorn" (Fox 2016-17) and time travel comedy "Making History" (Fox 2017) followed, but both were canceled after a single season. In 2016, Lord and Miller were named as directors of a 2018 standalone film in the Star Wars Universe starring Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo. Principal photography began in March 2017, but in June of that year, the pair were removed from the film following reported creative differences with producers and replaced by Ron Howard.
