Marcus Nispel

Marcus Nispel has garnered numerous awards for his commercials and music videos. With this talent he directed the feature film, “Friday The 13th,” which shattered all box office records for the highest opening ever for a horror film.

Nispel also directed the feature film, “Pathfinders,” which he developed and co-produced with producer Mike Medavoy at Phoenix Pictures and which was distributed by 20th Century Fox in April 2007. In tandem, Marcus has published the graphic novel of “Pathfinders,” with artwork by Christopher Shy.

Nispel made his feature film-directing debut in 2003, with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” for New Line Cinema, which grossed over $100,000,000 making it the most profitable movie of the year. Nispel's first venture in directing and producing for television was a modern retelling of “Frankenstein,” written by Dean Koontz and co-produced by Martin Scorsese.

Being German-born, Nispel started his career in advertising as an art director for Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt, Germany. He came to America on a Fulbright scholarship in 1984 at the age of 20 and made his directing debut in 1989 with a series of music videos for C&C Music Factory.

While living in New York, Nispel founded and operated his own production company, Portfolio Artists Network, before merging with RSA-USA, and then joining MJZ in 2000. Nispel directed over 1000 commercials and music videos, with commercial clients including: Coca-Cola, Kodak, Levi's, L'Oreal, Mercedes, Nike, Pepsi, Showtime, UPS, US Postal Service, well as MTV, ABC, CBS and NBC. Nispel has been awarded numerous international advertising accolades including several Clio Awards, the Moebius Award, and the Grand Prix at the BDA Awards.

His music videos include over fifteen number one songs and several breakthrough videos for artists such as the Spice Girls, Simply Red, Puff Daddy, Bush, No Doubt, the Fugees, George Michael, Janet Jackson, Elton John, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, Cher, Mariah Carey, k.d. Lang, Tony Bennett, C&C Music Factory, Bette Midler, LL Cool J, Bryan Adams and Gloria Estefan.

His work has garnered 12 MTV Music Video Award nominations resulting in four MTV Music Video Awards, including a 1993 MTV Best European Video Award for "Killer/Papa was a Rolling Stone" by George Michael.

Nispel has won two Billboard awards and Music Video Filmmaker Association Awards as well as the MVPA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. His work was part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art and was screened at the New York Film Festival, the Art Director's Club, and at the Film and Broadcast Museum in Frankfurt. Nispel has also won honors from the New York, Houston and Chicago Film Festivals and the Art Director's Club. In 1997, Nispel was featured as a speaker at the AICP MOMA Show. The AICP has honored him with several awards.

In 1996 he was honored at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's "Cross Cultural Dreams" retrospective of his music videos. He was featured in a chapter of Armond White's book on the pop revolution and was a recipient of the Black Achievement Award for the positive portrayal of African Americans in mass media.

Nispel has been featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Details, The New York Times, The LA Times, AdWeek, AdAge and Creativity. He has been the subject of two documentaries and was featured in Time Magazine's year-end issue "Best of 1996" for his Fidelity Investments campaign, "A Time Has Come Today."

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