Menu

Known For

Alexander Payne is known for:

  • Nebraska
    An aging, booze-addled father takes a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim what he believes to be a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.
  • Downsizing
    A kindly occupational therapist undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall so that he and his wife can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time.
  • The Descendants
    With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron, Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

Related Actors

These actors are frequently suggested for roles along with Alexander Payne.

Top Casting Suggestions

Alexander Payne has been suggested to play 52 roles. Click below to see other actors suggested for each role, and vote for who you think would play the role best.

More

Biography

Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an Oscar-winning filmmaker whose work has helped define modern-day American cinema. He is best known for the features Election (1999), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), About Schmidt (2002), Nebraska (2013) and The Holdovers (2023). His movies have garnered a total of 24 Academy Award nominations, including four times for Best Picture and three times for Best Director. He has won two Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay (Sideways, The Descendants), and two of his films have won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. His most recent film, The Holdovers, earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Five of his movies were shot at least partially in Nebraska, where he continues to live, dividing his time between there and Los Angeles. An Omaha native, Payne studied History and Spanish Literature at Stanford before earning an MFA in Film at UCLA. He serves on the boards of the Telluride Film Festival and The Film Foundation.