Alex Proyas

Born: September 23 1963
Where: Egypt

The former music video director first attracted attention - and notoriety - with the cult horror yarn The Crow.

During filming a stunt gun used on set accidentally went off killing 28-year-old lead actor Brandon Lee.

Born in Egypt to Greek parents, Proyas moved to Sydney when he was three and went on to study at the Australian Film and Television School.

A classmate of Jane Campion, he composed the score to her A Girl's Own Story and made his directorial debut with the short Groping.

He dropped out in 1984 (after forming the Meaningful Eye Contact production company) and began directing music videos, with awards for Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over.

On the strength of that, he moved to the USA to work with Fleetwood Mac and Yes and produced his first feature - Spirits of the Air - with the help of rockers INXS.

The film flopped and Proyas moved to TV commercials for Nike, Pepsi and American Express until his 1994 adaptation of the comic book The Crow.

At the same time he was working on the script that was to become Dark City, a movie which won the Australian Film Circle Award for best screenplay.

In 2002, he made the musical comedy Garage Days about a Sydney garage band trying to make it big.

Two years later he helmed the big screen adaptation of Isaac Asimov's sci-fi thriller I Robot with Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan.