Jonathan Liebesman

**Jonathan Liebesman** (born 15 September 1976) is a prominent South African film director and screenwriter. He is renowned for directing the films *Darkness Falls* (2003), *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning* (2006), *Battle: Los Angeles* (2011), *Wrath of the Titans* (2012), and *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* (2014). Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he began his journey in filmmaking at the AFDA, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, and later at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. During his time at Tisch, Liebesman co-wrote and directed an 8-minute short film, *Genesis and Catastrophe*, adapted from a Roald Dahl short story. This film screened at numerous festivals globally and won 'best short' at the Austin Film Festival in 2000, earning Liebesman the "Hollywood Young Filmmaker Award" at the Hollywood Film Festival. Liebesman's feature directorial debut, *Darkness Falls* was at the age of 26 in 2002. Subsequently, he co-wrote *Rings* (2005), a short film that served as a prequel to *The Ring Two* (2005). His breakthrough came after directing *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning*, which garnered substantial box office success. He went on to direct political thriller *The Killing Room* (2008), sci-fi film *Battle: Los Angeles* (2011), *Wrath of the Titans* (2012), and the reboot of *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* series in 2014. In 2019, he oversaw reshoots for *Dolittle* (2020) and directed the season 2 finale of the action series *Halo* in 2022.