List of directors who appear in their own films

Many film directors have appeared in their own films, sometimes with an uncredited cameo, in a small walk-on role, or sometimes in a more major role.^[1] The following lists directors who have appeared in their own films.^[2]

Directors who regularly appear in their own films

F. Gary Gray has made many appearances in the films he's directed including Friday, Set It Off, Law Abiding Citizen, and Straight Outta Compton. ^[3]

• Charlie Chaplin has appeared in many of his films including The Great Dictator, Twenty Minutes of Love, Caught in the Rain, A Busy Day, Her Friend the Bandit, Mabel's Married Life, Laughing Gas, Triple Trouble, His New Job, A Night Out, The Champion, In the Park, A Jitney Elopement, The Tramp, By the Sea, Work, A Woman, The Bank and many others
• Alfred Hitchcock had appeared (often very briefly) and made cameo appearances in nearly all of his films. See List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances
• Hassan al-Imam had appeared (often very briefly) and made cameo appearances in nearly all of his films.
• Martin Scorsese has appeared in a fair number of his films
• Spike Lee has appeared in many of his early films including She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Girl 6
• Quentin Tarantino, has had both prominent roles (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Grindhouse, Django Unchained) and smaller roles (Jackie Brown, uncredited voice only)
• Woody Allen has appeared as the protagonist in many of his films
• Dodo Abashidze in his films such as The Legend of Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib
• Gautam Vasudev Menon regularly played cameo roles in almost all of his films including Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa and Vaaranam Aayiram
• Dev Anand regularly starred in or at least had a major role in most of his films
• Kenneth Branagh has starred in and directed many films
• Tinto Brass appears in almost all his films
• Mel Brooks has had prominent roles in most of his films
• Jan Bucquoy has appeared in many of his films
• James Cameron very briefly appeared in Titanic, as Leonardo DiCaprio's artist hands and as a bystander in the third-class dance sequence
• John Carpenter has had small roles in many of his films, as well as composing the score for several
• John Cassavetes in his films such as Opening Night
• Wes Craven has appeared in cameos in a few of his films. Including a supporting role in Wes Craven's New Nightmare and cameos in Red Eye, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, and a deleted scene cameo in Scream 4
• William Dear has appeared in several films he has directed. His wife Susan and their son Oliver, now a director, has appeared in his productions
• Ruggero Deodato makes very brief cameos in most of his films
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his films such as Love Is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher, Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier, Beware of a Holy Whore, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Veronika Voss
• Lucio Fulci appeared in several of his later films, and even had a starring role in one of them
• Subhash Ghai has appeared in many of his films^[4]
• Christopher Guest has prominent roles in many of his "mockumentaries"
• Peter Jackson has made small cameo appearances in most of his films
• Terry Jones directed and appeared in all Monty Python films, as well as The Wind In The Willows, where he played Mr. Toad
• Buster Keaton regularly appeared in his own films
• Abbas Kiarostami appeared in his film Taste of Cherry
• Takeshi Kitano appears in almost all his films
• Fritz Lang made appearances in most of his films^[5]
• Jørgen Leth in his films such as The Five Obstructions
• Michael Moore has starred in his own films
• Tom Noonan in his films such as The Wife
• Perarasu has made cameo appearances in all of his films to date
• Tyler Perry has so far regularly starred in or at least had a major role in all but three of his films
• Roman Polanski has regularly appeared in his films, in both major and smaller roles
• S.S. Rajamouli, regularly appears in his films
• K. S. Ravikumar makes a special appearance or sometimes appears in a supporting role in all his films^[6]
• Jean Renoir in his films such as The Rules of the Game
• Robert Rodriguez makes small cameo appearances in most of his films. His most concealed role would be in the opening scene of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, voicing a shark; most noticeable are in Sin City, where he played a member of the SWAT and in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For where he appears alongside Frank Miller in a film-noir movie on a TV
• Eli Roth has a small role in every film he has directed. In the latest Hostel film, only his severed head is in it^{[citation needed]}
• Eldar Ryazanov has had small roles in many of his films
• John Sayles has appeared in many of his films
• Lowell Sherman normally an actor, Sherman began directing when sound arrived. From there he also appeared in productions he directed
• M. Night Shyamalan has so far had a small role in all but three of his films (Wide Awake, After Earth, and The Visit). His role in 2008's The Happening was his most concealed to date. (He was the voice on the phone that Zooey Deschanel was talking to throughout the film)^{[citation needed]}
• Vilgot Sjöman in his films such as I Am Curious (Yellow) and I Am Curious (Blue)
• Kevin Smith, as the character Silent Bob in all of the View Askewniverse films
• Jacques Tati makes multiple appearances in his films as a character named Monsieur Hulot
• Chris Tashima played the lead in Visas and Virtue and played the storyteller character in Day of Independence
• Eric von Stroheim, famously appeared in his lengthy silent film epics i.e. Blind Husbands and Foolish Wives
• Lars von Trier in his films such as The Element of Crime, Europa, and The Five Obstructions
• John Waters has had roles of varying prominence in most of his films
• Orson Welles had roles of varying significance in every film he directed
• Edgar Wright appears briefly in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz
• Lydia Zimmermann in her films such as Aro Tolbukhin. En la mente del asesino
• Taika Waititi has appeared in roles of varying significance in feature films he has directed

Actors who have directed and starred in their own films

• Tim Allen in Crazy on the Outside
• Woody Allen in Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, New York Stories, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Shadows and Fog, Husbands and Wives, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Don't Drink the Water, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, Deconstructing Harry, Small Time Crooks, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending, Scoop and To Rome with Love
• Alan Alda in The Four Seasons, Sweet Liberty, A New Life and Betsy's Wedding
• Cüneyt Arkın in all the films he directed
• Ben Affleck in The Town, Argo, Live by Night, and Air
• Drew Barrymore in Whip It
• Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth and Rules Don't Apply
• Lake Bell in In a World...
• Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful, The Tiger and the Snow
• Radha Blank in The Forty-Year-Old Version
• Kenneth Branagh in most of the films he's directed
• Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks
• Zach Braff in Garden State and Wish I Was Here
• Matthew Broderick in Infinity
• Mel Brooks in Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, Spaceballs, Life Stinks, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It
• Nicolas Cage in Sonny
• Tom Cavanagh in Tom & Grant
• Jackie Chan in The Fearless Hyena, The Young Master, Dragon Lord, Project A, Police Story, Armour of God, Project A Part II, Police Story 2, Miracles, Armour of God II: Operation Condor, Who Am I?, 1911, and CZ12
• Charlie Chaplin starred in almost every film he directed
• Cheran in Autograph, Thavamai Thavamirundhu and Mayakannadi
• Tommy Chong in Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, Nice Dreams, Still Smokin, Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers, and Far Out Man
• Stephen Chow in From Beijing with Love, Forbidden City Cop, The God of Cookery, King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, and CJ7
• George Clooney in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night, and Good Luck, Leatherheads, The Ides of March, The Monuments Men, and The Midnight Sky
• Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born
• Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, The Postman, Open Range, and Horizon: An American Saga
• Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night and Forget Paris
• Robert De Niro in A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd
• Marina de Van in In My Skin
• Sunny Deol in Ghayal: Once Again
• Johnny Depp in The Brave
• Ajay Devgn in U Me Aur Hum and Shivaay
• Danny DeVito in Throw Momma from the Train, The War of the Roses, Hoffa, Matilda and Death to Smoochy
• Kirk Douglas in Scalawag and Posse
• Cheryl Dunye in The Watermelon Woman
• Robert Duvall in The Apostle, Assassination Tango, and Wild Horses
• Clint Eastwood in A Perfect World, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, Absolute Power, Bronco Billy, The Eiger Sanction, Firefox, The Gauntlet, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Play Misty for Me, Space Cowboys, Sudden Impact, True Crime, Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Honkytonk Man, Heartbreak Ridge, White Hunter Black Heart, The Rookie, Blood Work, The Mule, and Cry Macho
• Jon Favreau in Made, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Chef
• Ralph Fiennes in Coriolanus and The Invisible Woman
• Peter Fonda in The Hired Hand and Wanda Nevada
• Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate and The Beaver
• Jonathan Frakes in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection
• Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face and Braveheart
• Crispin Glover in What Is It?
• Bobcat Goldthwait in Shakes the Clown and World's Greatest Dad
• Tom Green in Freddy Got Fingered
• Kamal Haasan in Hey Ram and Virumaandi
• Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do and Larry Crowne
• Ed Harris in Pollock and Appaloosa
• Charlton Heston in Antony and Cleopatra, Mother Lode and A Man for All Seasons
• Anthony Hopkins in August and Slipstream
• Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, The Last Movie, Out of the Blue
• Ron Howard in Grand Theft Auto
• Sammo Hung starred in almost every film he directed
• Ice Cube in The Players Club
• Ayhan Işık in Örgün
• Tony Jaa in Ong Bak 2 and Ong Bak 3
• Michael Jackson in Moonwalker
• Jiang Wen in Devils on the Doorstep, The Sun Also Rises, Let the Bullets Fly, Gone with the Bullets, and Hidden Man
• Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo and The Holy Mountain
• Michael B. Jordan in Creed III
• John Krasinski in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, The Hollars, A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place Part II, and IF
• Brie Larson in Unicorn Store
• Martin Lawrence in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate
• Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon
• Jerry Lewis in The Bellboy, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, The Nutty Professor (1963 film), The Patsy (1964 film), The Family Jewels (film), Hardly Working, and Cracking Up (1983 film)
• Jet Li in Born to Defence
• Dolph Lundgren in The Defender, The Mechanik, Missionary Man, Command Performance, Icarus, Castle Falls, and Wanted Man
• Ida Lupino in The Bigamist
• Diana Lee Inosanto in The Sensei
• Angelina Jolie in By the Sea
• Terry Jones in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Erik the Viking, and The Wind in the Willows
• Tommy Lee Jones in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
• Raj Kapoor starred in almost every film he directed
• Buster Keaton starred in all but three of the films he directed
• Diane Keaton in Hanging Up
• Michael Keaton in The Merry Gentleman and Knox Goes Away
• Aamir Khan in Taare Zameen Par
• Takeshi Kitano in Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine, Getting Any?, Fireworks, Kikujiro, Brother, Zatoichi, Takeshis', Glory to the Filmmaker!, Achilles and the Tortoise, Outrage, Beyond Outrage, and Outrage Coda. Actor Credited Role As Beat Takeshi
• Eric Allan Kramer and Leigh-Allyn Baker in Good Luck Charlie
• Nadine Labaki in Caramel, Where Do We Go Now and Capernaum
• Lee Jung-jae in Hunt
• Seth MacFarlane in Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West
• William H. Macy in Rudderless and Krystal
• Cheech Marin in Born in East L.A
• Coco Martin in Ang Panday (2017). Director role credited as Rodel Nacianceno, Martin's real name.^[7]
• Melanie Martinez in K-12
• Walter Matthau in Gangster Story
• Balachandra Menon in all the films he directed
• Nikita Mikhalkov in At Home Among Strangers, A Slave of Love, An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano, Burnt by the Sun, The Barber of Siberia, 12, Burnt by the Sun 2
• Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake, Ride the Pink Horse, Once More My Darling and Your Witness
• Eddie Murphy in Harlem Nights
• Bill Murray in Quick Change
• Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Jack Nicholson in Goin' South, The Terror and The Two Jakes
• Laurence Olivier in Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, and The Prince and the Showgirl
• Dev Patel in Monkey Man
• Anthony Perkins in Psycho III, Lucky Stiff
• Tyler Perry in all of his films so far except Daddy's Little Girls, Acrimony, For Colored Girls and Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
• Irving Pichel in Santa Fe and Martin Luther
• Chris Pine in Poolman
• Ernest Prakasa in Ngenest, Check the Store Next Door, Susah Sinyal, Imperfect, and Check the Store Next Door 2
• Roman Polanski in The Tenant
• Natalie Portman in A Tale of Love and Darkness
• Prince in Under The Cherry Moon
• Richard Pryor in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
• Gregory Ratoff in Abdullah the Great
• Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer and Lions for Lambs
• Keanu Reeves in Man of Tai Chi
• Rob Reiner in This Is Spinal Tap, Misery, The Story of Us and Alex and Emma
• Chris Rock in Head of State, I Think I Love My Wife, and Top Five
• Meg Ryan in Ithaca and What Happens Later
• Isabel Sandoval in Señorita (2011) and Lingua Franca
• George C. Scott in Rage (1972)
• Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground
• William Shatner in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Groom Lake
• Frank Sinatra in None But the Brave
• Gary Sinise in Of Mice and Men
• Martin Sheen in Cadence
• Sylvester Stallone in Paradise Alley, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa, Rambo and The Expendables
• Ben Stiller in Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Barbra Streisand in Yentl, The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces
• S. J. Suryah in New, Anbe Aaruyire and Isai
• Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, Daddy and Them and Jayne Mansfield's Car
• François Truffaut in The Wild Child, Day for Night and The Green Room
• Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Quest and Frenchy
• Nia Vardalos in I Hate Valentine's Day and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
• Denzel Washington in Antwone Fisher (film), The Great Debaters, and Fences (film)
• Keenan Ivory Wayans in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and A Low Down Dirty Shame
• John Wayne in The Alamo and The Green Berets
• Donnie Yen in Ballistic Kiss and Sakra

Directors who have occasionally cameoed in their own films

• Kevin Allen in Twin Town
• Emile Ardolino in Dirty Dancing
• Eli Craig in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
• Michael Bay in Armageddon, Bad Boys II and Transformers
• Luc Besson in L'Avant dernier, Subway, The Big Blue and in animated form in Arthur and the Minimoys^{[citation needed]}
• Madhur Bhandarkar appears in his movie fashion, apparently researching on the same movie.
• Tod Browning in Dracula
• Tim Burton in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (film) and Pee-wee's Big Adventure
• Frank Capra in It Happened One Night
• Rob Cohen in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Daylight, The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious and XXX
• Telugu director, S.S. Rajamouli has appeared as a stall owner in the 2015 Telugu industry hit Baahubali: The Beginning
• John Cromwell in Abe Lincoln in Illinois
• Wes Craven in the first four Scream films and New Nightmare
• Alfonso Cuarón in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Richard Curtis in Love Actually as a trombonist at a wedding.
• Cecil B. DeMille in The Squaw Man
• Richard Donner in Superman, Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, The Goonies, Conspiracy Theory, Timeline and 16 Blocks
• Jon Favreau in Elf, Made, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2
• Terry Gilliam in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky, The Crimson Permanent Assurance, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Jean-Luc Godard^[8] appears as the bystander who betrays Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless (1960).
• Renny Harlin in Deep Blue Sea
• Ron Howard in Night Shift kissing a girl outside of Henry Winkler's apartment.
• John Hughes in The Breakfast Club,^[9] Ferris Bueller's Day Off,^[10] and National Lampoon's Class Reunion.
• John Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• Peter R. Hunt's reflection appears in the Universal Exports sign in On Her Majesty's Secret Service^[11]
• Shekhar Kapur in Bandit Queen as a lorry driver.
• Stanley Kubrick briefly appeared in his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. He also had a small voice role in his penultimate film, Full Metal Jacket.
• John Landis in Schlock, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London
• Richard Linklater in It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, Slacker and Waking Life
• George Lucas in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
• David Lynch in The Amputee, Dune, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Dumb Land (voice only)
• George Marshall in Pack Up Your Troubles
• Gautham Vasudev Menon in Minnale, Kaaka Kaaka, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, Pachaikili Muthucharam and Vaaranam Aayiram
• Mike Newell in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Todd Phillips in Road Trip, Old School, and The Hangover
• Judd Apatow as a customer in a deleted scene of The 40 Year Old Virgin. Apatow also appears with his daughters in a scene.
• Sydney Pollack in The Electric Horseman, Tootsie, Random Hearts and The Interpreter
• Michael Powell in Peeping Tom as the sadistic scientist father (only seen in home-movie footage). Also seen briefly in Hotel Splendide, The Fire Raisers, The Edge of the World, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, The Volunteer
• Robert Rafelson in the Monkees' feature film, Head
• Sam Raimi had a cameo in The Evil Dead as one of the roadside people waving goodbye to Ash and his friends. Also seen briefly in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness
• Harold Ramis as the neurologist in Groundhog Day
• Raúl Ruiz in Colloque de chiens, Las soledades, Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody, La Recta Provincia and Ballet aquatique
• Joe Russo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War (scene deleted), and Avengers: Endgame
• Martin Scorsese^[12] in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Age of Innocence, Hugo and Killers of the Flower Moon. (Some of these are offscreen voice roles, but he had a significant speaking part in both Taxi Driver and Killers of the Flower Moon)
• Steven Spielberg in Jaws, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Oliver Stone in The Hand, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Nixon (voice only), Any Given Sunday and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
• Gus Van Sant in My Own Private Idaho, Psycho, Finding Forrester and Last Days
• David Yates in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• David Zucker and Jerry Zucker in Airplane!
• Chris Columbus in his film adaptation of musical Rent.
• John Woo in A Better Tomorrow
• Remo D'Souza in ABCD 2
• Zack Snyder in Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League
• Stephen Surjik in Wayne's World 2

See also

• List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances

References

This page was last edited on 24 October 2023, at 01:37