---
name: "Gregg Araki"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/gregg-araki"
fi1m_id: "gregg-araki"
imdb_id: "nm0000777"
tmdb_id: 19224
wikidata_id: "Q708899"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "17 December 1959"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 62
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-23T12:02:35.019852+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Gregg Araki

## Identity

Gregg Araki

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/gregg-araki
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** gregg-araki
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000777
- **TMDB ID:** 19224
- **Wikidata ID:** Q708899
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Araki, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708899, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000777/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19224

Director. Born 17 December 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 17 December 1959, Los Angeles, California, USA
- **Active:** 2022–present
- **Average Fi1m score:** 62, as director, over 2 titles
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Araki, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708899, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000777/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19224

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story*](https://film.one/tv/dahmer-monster-the-jeffrey-dahmer-story.md) (51)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Gregg Araki

> Gregg Araki makes frank, brightly coloured films about young outsiders trying to understand what they want. We like his willingness to be funny about desire, though his characters can be more persuasive than his conclusions.

In *I Want Your Sex* (2026), sexual caution gives Gregg Araki as much material for comedy as desire. We laughed at the jokes about young people's fear of sex, because he lets that fear look ridiculous rather than treating it with automatic respect. The film is good, wilfully silly company. It also finds him rather too ready to explain a generation through one unequal romance.

Young outsiders, queer desire and sexual uncertainty recur in his pop-culture-saturated versions of Los Angeles. The Teen Apocalypse Trilogy — *Totally F***ed Up* (1993), *The Doom Generation* (1995) and *Nowhere* (1997) — brought him to prominence within New Queer Cinema. Personal crises repeatedly come with suggestions that the world itself might end. In *Nowhere*, the episodic construction makes room for comedy, drama and provocation, without requiring him to keep them neatly separate.

*Mysterious Skin* (2004), an adaptation addressing childhood trauma, brought him wider critical attention. The subsequent path took in *Smiley Face* (2007), *Kaboom* (2010) and *White Bird in a Blizzard* (2014), then extensive television work. *I Want Your Sex* ended a twelve-year gap between features, returning to the question of how young people understand their desires.

Working with co-writer Karley Sciortino, Araki gives Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman a relationship worth following before the screenplay adds complications it does not need. Their casting matters: they hold our interest when the writing becomes less convincing. Experience is too readily offered as the answer to younger people's sexual anxiety. The imbalance of authority between the lovers is central to their attraction, yet the writing leaves some of its awkwardness unexplored. His pleasure in teasing the young sometimes makes him too quick to dismiss their concerns.

Araki also edits, and the film's 90 minutes still feel overextended once the plotting gets busier. The rhythm becomes less assured as extra business interrupts our interest in the leads. We would happily lose several complications and stay with the relationship that was already holding our attention. Try *I Want Your Sex* for the performances and the frank comedy, with no expectation that it will tell us much about an entire generation.

## Biography

Gregg Araki is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 17 December 1959 in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Santa Barbara. He holds a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MFA from the University of Southern California.

Araki began directing feature films in the late 1980s. He is associated with the New Queer Cinema movement and is known for the Teenage Apocalypse trilogy comprising *Totally F***ed Up* (1993), *The Doom Generation* (1995) and *Nowhere* (1997). Other notable films include *Mysterious Skin* (2004), *Kaboom* (2010), which received the first Queer Palm at Cannes, and *White Bird in a Blizzard* (2014). He has also directed episodes of television series including *Riverdale* and *13 Reasons Why*.

In 2026 Araki wrote, directed and edited the feature *I Want Your Sex*.

*Sources: variety.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *I Want Your Sex* (2026), Fi1m 73, Writer, Director, Producer, Editor — [page](https://film.one/film/i-want-your-sex.md)
- *DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story* (2022), Fi1m 51, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/dahmer-monster-the-jeffrey-dahmer-story.md)

## Complete filmography (26)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *I Want Your Sex* (2026), Director, Writer, Producer, Editor — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/i-want-your-sex.md)
- *DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story* (2022), series, Director — Fi1m 51, [page](https://film.one/tv/dahmer-monster-the-jeffrey-dahmer-story.md)
- *American Gigolo* (2022), series, Director
- *30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing* (2019), Director
- *Now Apocalypse* (2019), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Director, Creator
- *Heathers* (2018), series, Director
- *13 Reasons Why* (2017), series, Director
- *Riverdale* (2017), series, Director
- *Greenleaf* (2016), series, Director
- *American Crime* (2015), series, Director
- *White Bird in a Blizzard* (2014), Director, Screenplay, Editor, Producer
- *Red Oaks* (2014), series, Director
- *Kaboom* (2010), Screenplay, Director, Editor, Producer
- *Protect You + Me* (2008), Thanks
- *Smiley Face* (2007), Director, Producer, Editor
- *Mysterious Skin* (2005), Screenplay, Director, Producer, Editor
- *This is how the world ends...* (2000), series, Director, Writer, Producer, Editor, Creator
- *But I'm a Cheerleader* (2000), Thanks
- *Splendor* (1999), Writer, Producer, Director, Supervising Film Editor, Editor
- *Nowhere* (1997), Producer, Director, Editor, Writer
- *The Doom Generation* (1995), Producer, Editor, Writer, Director
- *Totally F***ed Up* (1994), Director, Director of Photography, Writer, Editor, Producer
- *The Living End* (1992), Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor
- *the long weekend (o' despair)* (1989), Director, Producer, Writer, Editor
- *Three Bewildered People in the Night* (1987), Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Producer, Editor
- *The Decline of F*cking Western Civilization*, Director, Writer, Editor, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-6cf67a4f5f37.jpg) Gregg Araki — Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Gregg_Araki_-_Mysterious_Skin.jpg/1280px-Gregg_Araki_-_Mysterious_Skin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Director Gregg Araki at the I Want Your Sex premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-2a0134a26016.jpg) Director Gregg Araki at the I Want Your Sex premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival — LaShawnda Jones, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Director_Gregg_Araki_at_the_I_Want_Your_Sex_premiere_during_the_2026_Sundance_Film_Festival_%282%29.jpg/1280px-Director_Gregg_Araki_at_the_I_Want_Your_Sex_premiere_during_the_2026_Sundance_Film_Festival_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Full house at the I Want Your Sex premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-857ce01d3ac4.jpg) Full house at the I Want Your Sex premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival — LaShawnda Jones, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Full_house_at_the_I_Want_Your_Sex_premiere_during_the_2026_Sundance_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Full_house_at_the_I_Want_Your_Sex_premiere_during_the_2026_Sundance_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Director Gregg Araki and Joseph Gordon Levitt present a screening of "Mysterious Skin" at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-f5cbe2b3c09b.jpg) Director Gregg Araki and Joseph Gordon Levitt present a screening of "Mysterious Skin" at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival — Colleen Sturtevant, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/GreggArakiJosephGordonLevittattheSundanceFilmFestival2026.jpg/1280px-GreggArakiJosephGordonLevittattheSundanceFilmFestival2026.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-58ad68b0c49e.jpg) Gregg Araki — Image via TMDB
- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-fcd41fef418d.jpg) Gregg Araki — Image via TMDB
- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-81c87d41c4b8.jpg) Gregg Araki — Image via TMDB
- ![Gregg Araki - Mysterious Skin Q&A - Picturehouse Central - Saturday 8th July 2023](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-c6093f30ac62.jpg) Gregg Araki - Mysterious Skin Q&A - Picturehouse Central - Saturday 8th July 2023 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/GreggArakiPictCent080723_%2810_of_13%29_%2853032334676%29.jpg/1280px-GreggArakiPictCent080723_%2810_of_13%29_%2853032334676%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Gregg Araki - Mysterious Skin Q&A - Picturehouse Central - Saturday 8th July 2023](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-0ad6abe2a6c9.jpg) Gregg Araki - Mysterious Skin Q&A - Picturehouse Central - Saturday 8th July 2023 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/GreggArakiPictCent080723_%2811_of_13%29_%2853032334681%29.jpg/1280px-GreggArakiPictCent080723_%2811_of_13%29_%2853032334681%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-7d760a2801c7.jpg) Gregg Araki — Image via TMDB
- ![Gregg Araki](https://film.one/media/person/92530/gallery-c8cfe24036f8.jpg) Gregg Araki — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gregg-araki