Morgan Spurlock - Profile

By Patrick Bromley, About.com Guide

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Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

Born:

November 7, 1970

Quick Morgan Spurlock Facts:

Spurlock was born and raised in West Virginia.
He received his degree in film from New York University.
He performed stand-up in both New York and Los Angeles.
His first film, Super Size Me, was released in 2004 and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Spurlock's TV series, 30 Days, premiered in 2005.
His second film, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, was released in 2008.

Morgan Spurlock Overview:

Morgan Spurlock is often referred to a documentary filmmaker, but his movies are more like essays -- they are subjective, from his perspective and represent his own world view. The former stand-up comedian takes the funny, one-man approach to comedy and applies it to his films. Spurlock has also branched out into producing films and television shows, and published his first book in 2005.

Early Years:

Morgan Valentine Spurlock was born on November 7, 1970, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He was raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. He moved to New York to attend college, where he graduated from NYU with a BFA in film. After college, he relocated to Los Angeles and began performing stand-up comedy and writing plays. He later created a web cast called "I Bet You Will," (where regular people were paid money to perform outrageous stunts) which was picked up and turned into a series by MTV.

Getting Super Sized:

In 2004, Spurlock released his first film, Super Size Me. The film followed Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald's fast food three times a day for 30 days and examined the effects the diet had on his health. The film was a success and scored Spurlock an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature. It also inspired his first book, Don't Eat This: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America, released in 2005.

Though there was no official correlation, McDonald's made several changes to its menu (offering more healthy options) shortly after the release of Spurlock's film.

The Small Screen:

The success of Spurlock's film led to his own TV series on the FX cable network. The show, called 30 Days, premiered in 2005. The premise -- inspired by Super Size Me -- finds Spurlock and other participants attempting to spend 30 days in the shoes of someone else (one episode found Spurlock and his then-girlfriend living on minimum wage for 30 days; in another, he spent 25 days in Virginia prison). The show's third season premiered in 2008.

Morgan Spurlock Tries to Find Osama:

In 2008, Spurlock released his second feature film, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. Inspired by the impending birth of his son (Laken, born in 2006), Spurlock heads off to the Middle East to explore questions of terrorism, national safety, conflict in the Middle East -- and to find Osama Bin Laden. The film was largely seen as a misfire and didn't receive the same acclaim as his first effort.

Additional Morgan Spurlock Facts:

Spurlock studied ballet as a child.
He was rejected by the USC film school five times.
In 1996, he worked as an announcer for extreme sports competitions on ESPN.
He gained 25 pounds during the filming of Super Size Me.
Spurlock won Best Director for a Documentary Film at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival for Super Size Me.
He married his long-time girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson (seen in both Super Size Me and Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?) in 2006.