Lee Whannell is an American actor and screenwriter. He gained worldwide fame after writing the script for the film "Saw", directed by his friend, director James Wan. Later he became a screenwriter and executive producer of all the following episodes of the film.
In addition to the sensational picture "Saw" and all its sequels, Lee writes scripts for three parts of the film "Astral" ("Astral I", "Astral II", "Astral IV") and becomes the director of the third part of "Astral". In all four parts of the film, he also played one of the central roles.
Childhood and early creativity
Lee was born in 1977 in Australia. When he was still young, he began to compose his first stories. A passion for literature, art and cinema was instilled in the boy by his parents, because his mother was engaged in literary activity, and his father worked on television.
At the age of four, Lee composed and recorded his first story about a frog that lost its flute. It was a masterpiece of his children's creativity. I must say that the boy learned to write and read very early, and he began to compose his stories exclusively of his own free will.
After leaving school, his creative biography was replenished with numerous reviews that Lee wrote for television. The young man continued his creative education at the film school at the University of Melbourne. It was there that the fateful meeting of two people who became friends and colleagues took place. Lee meets James Wang, who later becomes the director of several films based on Wannell's scripts.
Creative career
Lee worked as a film critic for a while on Australian television. Then there was his cameo role in the movie "The Matrix Reloaded" and work on the voice acting of the characters of various virtual games.
Together with James Wang, Lee begins to do coursework. He writes the script and James directs the first short film, Saw. Their teacher who looked through the material was not only surprised, but shocked by what he saw on the screen and sent the work of young filmmakers to America, to Hollywood. After a while, the young people were invited to create a full-length film, which eventually became known as "Saw: A Survival Game."
After the resounding success of the picture, Lee did not plan to make a sequel, but still could not resist the temptation and wrote another script for the second and then the third part. In all other parts of "Saw" he acted as a producer.
The last parts of the famous horror film, which Lee produced, were filmed by other directors. But all their innovations, special effects, a huge amount of fear, blood and horror could not raise the paintings to the level of the first parts shot by Wang.
One of the next projects that brought Lee great fame and made him even more famous were all parts of "Astral", where he acted as a scriptwriter and director of the third part.
His next directorial job was the action film Upgrade, which was released in 2018. From a low-budget project, Wannel managed to make a wonderful, rich cinema, where he was able to realize his talent as a screenwriter and director.
Personal life
Lee's wife is actress Corbett Tuck. He met her on the set of the first part of "Astral". They got married in 2009 and are raising a daughter and two twin boys.
