Biography for
Tyler Norman More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

16 June 1984, Newport Beach, California, USA

Birth Name

Tyler Fielding Norman

Mini Biography

One of the more intriguing and talented filmmakers to emerge in recent years, Tyler Norman's early beginnings closely mirrored those of another well-known filmmaker, Steven Spielberg. Taking control of his family's vacation videos at an early age and using movies as a way to cope with his childhood and adolescent fears, he later began making short films and distributing VHS copies around his high school. As a teenager, Norman constructed dollies from model train tracks, built makeshift cranes and Steadicams from old tripod parts, made cardboard inserts to produce light patterns with his father's slide projector, and built custom lens attachments for his video cameras. After being unable to attend Chapman University's film school for lack of funds, he entered the film program at Orange Coast College where he bypassed a number of entry-level classes and immediately began production of 16mm films. At the same time he began writing screenplays and sending them around to various small production houses for feedback.

Norman was discovered by Joey Travolta in 2008, after a friend of the family contacted him and arranged a meeting. Travolta was impressed with Norman's previous work and hired him to write and direct a short film to be crewed by his students. The result was Spud (2009), which premiered at the Television Academy's headquarters in Hollywood and gained an uncommon level of attention from the industry at large - and in a poetic turn, became the first outside film to be screened at Chapman University. Norman has since turned his eye to the feature film and television projects he has long since had planned.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Carl S.

Trivia

Diagnosed at an early age with Asperger's Syndrome.

Is an avid pyrotechnician and regularly attends fireworks conventions and club meetings.

Son of Lowell Norman.

Credits Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, M. Night Shyamalan, and Joss Whedon as his greatest screenwriting influences.

He is the fourth generation of his family to express an interest in photography and film. His great-grandfather, John Norman, was a Norwegian-born hobbyist who built self-timing mechanisms for his cameras; his grandfather, Edwin, was an avid 8mm film enthusiast, and his father, Lowell, worked as a photographer and filmmaker for John Denver. He is unrelated to the makers of Norman flash equipment.

As an infant, his bedroom doubled as a projection room for 16mm films his father made for John Denver. The projector was located in the closet, with a small window added into the door.

His favorite films as a child were The NeverEnding Story (1984), Home Alone (1990), Hook (1991), and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

As of 2010, considers Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy to be the best movie ever made.

He is a lifelong fan of Super Mario Bros. (1985) (VG) and its subsequent sequels. After seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), his dream project has been to direct an adaptation of Super Mario Bros. in similar fashion.

Is a fan of the punk-rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

Collects vinyl records of classic '60s and '70s rock-and-roll.