--- name: "John Hamburg" canonical: "https://film.one/person/john-hamburg" fi1m_id: "john-hamburg" imdb_id: "nm0357453" tmdb_id: 17871 wikidata_id: "Q167683" roles: ["Writer","Director"] born: "26 May 1970" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 68 average_as: "writer" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-19T04:29:51.123287+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." --- # John Hamburg ## Identity John Hamburg - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/john-hamburg - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** john-hamburg - **IMDb ID:** nm0357453 - **TMDB ID:** 17871 - **Wikidata ID:** Q167683 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamburg, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q167683, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0357453/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17871 Writer and director. Born 26 May 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Director - **Born:** 26 May 1970, New York City, New York, USA - **Active:** 2000–present - **Also known as:** John Liman Hamburg - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 2 directing, 3 writing - **Frequently works with:** [Ben Stiller](https://film.one/person/ben-stiller.md), [Jane Rosenthal](https://film.one/person/jane-rosenthal.md), [Jay Roach](https://film.one/person/jay-roach.md), [Owen Wilson](https://film.one/person/owen-wilson.md), [Robert De Niro](https://film.one/person/robert-de-niro.md), [Blythe Danner](https://film.one/person/blythe-danner.md), [Jim Herzfeld](https://film.one/person/jim-herzfeld.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 68, as writer, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 68 (3), 2010s 80 (1), 2020s 58 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 68 to 60 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Comedy 3, Romance 2 - **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $908m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamburg, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q167683, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0357453/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17871 ## Coming up - *Focker-in-Law* (2026-11-25), Director — [page](https://film.one/film/focker-in-law.md) ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*New Girl*](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md) (80) - **Paramount+:** [*Zoolander*](https://film.one/film/zoolander.md) (74) - **Apple TV:** [*Stick*](https://film.one/tv/stick.md) (58) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on John Hamburg > John Hamburg is good at making awkward people take their own troubles seriously. We like his feel for character, but the plots can be cumbersome, and his comedies often depend on actors making foolish behaviour convincing. In *Zoolander* (2001), Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson make male-model vanity seem worth taking seriously, at least to the men involved. We laughed at their determined stupidity because the performances give such flimsy concerns such conviction. That suits John Hamburg’s preference for people who treat their comic predicaments as though they are in a drama. We like his comedy most when he gives actors room to make those people convincing. He wrote and directed *Safe Men* (1998) before finding wider success as a co-writer of *Meet the Parents* (2000) and *Zoolander*. *Along Came Polly* (2004) returned him to directing, and *I Love You, Man* (2009) made male friendship the subject. His recurring interest is the awkward business of getting along with people whose habits are unlike one’s own. Stiller is a regular collaborator, well suited to comedy in which looking foolish matters desperately to the person doing it. Hamburg co-wrote *Zoolander* with Stiller and Drake Sather, and the reservations about that screenplay matter as much as the successful pairing. The conspiracy plot asks us to care about events when we would rather be watching the two leads behave idiotically. The satire takes an easy target in vanity and finds little else to say about it. His willingness to let actors expand character-led dialogue through improvisation makes sense; the harder task is giving those exchanges a story worth following. His television directing includes *New Girl* (2011). We recommend it for the friendships that emerge once Jess’s awkwardness stops being the whole joke. The romantic plotting is sometimes overworked, but the pleasure of the company survives it. That is something Hamburg’s films would do well to remember when inventing another predicament. *Why Him?* (2016) leans too heavily on vulgar gags, while *Me Time* (2022) leaves too little developed around its cast. The appetite for awkward encounters remains, but familiar situations still need proper writing. We would sooner see Hamburg give two mismatched people time to become interesting than supply another elaborate reason for them to panic. ## Biography John Hamburg (born John Liman Hamburg) is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. Born on 26 May 1970 in New York City, he graduated from Brown University in 1992 with a degree in history and later attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He began his career with the short film *Tick* (1996), which screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and wrote and directed the feature *Safe Men* (1998). Hamburg is known for his screenplays for *Meet the Parents* (2000) and *Zoolander* (2001), both collaborations with Ben Stiller, as well as *Meet the Fockers* (2004), *Along Came Polly* (2004), which he also directed, *I Love You, Man* (2009), which he wrote and directed, *Little Fockers* (2010), *Why Him?* (2016), which he directed and co-wrote, *Zoolander 2* (2016) and *Me Time* (2022), which he wrote and directed. He has been married to actress Christina Kirk since 2005. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, tvguide.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Directed (2) - *Stick* (2025), Fi1m 58, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/stick.md) - *New Girl* (2011), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md) ### Wrote (3) — the average rests on these - *Meet the Fockers* (2004), Fi1m 52, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/meet-the-fockers.md) - *Zoolander* (2001), Fi1m 74, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/zoolander.md) - *Meet the Parents* (2000), Fi1m 78, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/meet-the-parents.md) ## Complete filmography (23) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Focker-in-Law* (2026), Director, Producer, Writer — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/film/focker-in-law.md) - *Stick* (2025), series, Director — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/tv/stick.md) - *Me Time* (2022), Writer, Director, Producer - *The Unicorn* (2019), series, Director, Executive Producer - *Night School* (2018), Writer - *Why Him?* (2016), Director, Executive Producer, Story, Screenplay - *Zoolander 2* (2016), Writer - *New Girl* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md) - *Little Fockers* (2010), Writer, Producer - *I Love You, Man* (2009), Screenplay, Director, Producer - *Welcome to the Captain* (2008), series, Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator - *Stella* (2005), series, Director - *Meet the Fockers* (2004), Screenplay — Fi1m 52, [page](https://film.one/film/meet-the-fockers.md) - *Along Came Polly* (2004), Director, Writer - *Duplex* (2003), as Mr. Friedman - *Stella Shorts 1998-2002* (2002), Director of Photography - *Zoolander* (2001), Screenplay — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/zoolander.md) - *Undeclared* (2001), series, Director - *Meet the Parents* (2000), Screenplay — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/meet-the-parents.md) - *Safe Men* (1998), as Philip · Writer, Director - *Tick* (1996), Director, Writer, Editor - *Chickula! Teenage Vampire* (1995), Director of Photography - *Dr. Rapp*, Screenplay, Director ## Gallery - ![Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, Jason Segel, John Hamburg, Larry Levin, Rashida Jones, and Paul Rudd, the cast and director/writers of I Love You, Man, at the premi (2009)](https://film.one/media/person/97490/gallery-38f909c98967.jpg) Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, Jason Segel, John Hamburg, Larry Levin, Rashida Jones, and Paul Rudd, the cast and director/writers of I Love You, Man, at the premi (2009) — Thomas Crenshaw at https://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyc/, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/IloveyoumanTXpremiereMarch09.jpg/1280px-IloveyoumanTXpremiereMarch09.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![John Hamburg](https://film.one/media/person/97490/gallery-5c08947df145.jpg) John Hamburg — Canadian Film Centre, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/John_Hamburg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![John Hamburg, Larry Levin, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, and Jon Favreau at the Austin, TX premiere of I Love You, Man (2009)](https://film.one/media/person/97490/gallery-155869ae2b5c.jpg) John Hamburg, Larry Levin, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, and Jon Favreau at the Austin, TX premiere of I Love You, Man (2009) — Thomas Crenshaw at https://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyc/, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/WriterscastILoveYouManPremiereMarch09.jpg/1280px-WriterscastILoveYouManPremiereMarch09.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![John Hamburg](https://film.one/media/person/97490/gallery-cb62ef9a0432.jpg) John Hamburg — 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/john-hamburg