Jesse Peretz
May 19, 1968
Film director, musician
1986-present
- Marty Peretz
- Anne Devereux
Career[edit]
Peretz is a founding member of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based rock band The Lemonheads, which he formed in high school with classmates Evan Dando and Ben Deily.[2] He left the band as a musician prior to the band's breakthrough album, It's a Shame About Ray; however, he continued to work with them as a photographer and music video director. His first videos for The Lemonheads were for the songs "Mrs. Robinson", "Confetti" and "It's a Shame about Ray".[3] He went on to direct videos for the Foo Fighters (he won a Grammy for Best Music Video for "Learn to Fly"),[4] Jack Black, Nada Surf and The Breeders,[3] as well as creating and co-directing the "Jimmy the Cab-Driver" comedy vignettes for MTV with his friends from Harvard Donal Logue and Clay Tarver.[5] Peretz also directed several commercials including spots for Nike, IKEA, Barq's Root Beer, and the Sony PlayStation.[6] In 1998, he directed a feature film called First Love, Last Rites based on the Ian McEwan short story of the same name.[3] In 2001 he directed The Chateau (starring Paul Rudd), in 2006 The Ex, and in 2011 Our Idiot Brother.[7] He has worked as a producer/director on the HBO show Girls and Showtime's Nurse Jackie.[3][8] It was announced in 2014 that Peretz would direct an adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel Juliet, Naked, produced by Judd Apatow.[9] Peretz's film version premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.[10]
Personal life[edit]
Peretz was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Anne Devereux (née Labouisse), and publisher Marty Peretz.[1][11] His father is a descendant of Yiddish-language Jewish author I. L. Peretz. His maternal grandparents were Elizabeth Scriven (Clark) and diplomat Henry Richardson Labouisse, Jr. His maternal great-grandfather was art collector and philanthropist Stephen Carlton Clark, who was the son of Alfred Corning Clark and the grandson of inventor Edward C. Clark.[12] His father is Jewish, and his mother is Protestant.[13]