---
name: "Kirk Jones"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/kirk-jones"
fi1m_id: "kirk-jones"
imdb_id: "nm0428600"
tmdb_id: 64045
wikidata_id: "Q636003"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "31 October 1964"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-09-24T19:42:09.682433+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."
---

# Kirk Jones

## Identity

Kirk Jones

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/kirk-jones
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** kirk-jones
- **IMDb ID:** nm0428600
- **TMDB ID:** 64045
- **Wikidata ID:** Q636003
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Jones_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q636003, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0428600/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/64045

Producer and director. Born 31 October 1964 in Bristol, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 31 October 1964, Bristol, England, UK
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Jones_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q636003, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0428600/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/64045

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*I Swear*](https://film.one/film/i-swear.md) (70)

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

## Fi1m on Kirk Jones

> Kirk Jones makes warm, well-made films about people who come round to one another, from the village of *Waking Ned* to the Tourette's story of *I Swear*. He does it with skill, and he does not let anything stay difficult for long.

In *I Swear* (2025) a stranger hears John Davidson shout something he cannot help, and flinches. Give the film a scene or two and the stranger has softened. That is the Kirk Jones shape, and it has been since his first feature: people wary of one another at the start and fond of one another by the end, with the hard part handled quickly or off screen. He is good at it. After nearly thirty years it is fair to ask whether he is interested in anything else.

He came out of Newport Film School into commercials and directed more than a hundred of them before *Waking Ned* (1998), which he wrote and directed. That village comedy made his name for character comedy and pace, and it led to the studio family film *Nanny McPhee* (2005). Then came the American comedies: *Everybody's Fine* (2009), which he adapted himself from an Italian original, *What to Expect When You're Expecting* (2012) and *My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2* (2016). Critics found them predictable and sentimental, and nobody had said that about the debut. With *I Swear* he went back to writing his own script from a real life, and produced it too. The film is his in a way the studio work was not.

What works is the casting and the care. Jones often writes from real people and his own observation, and he works his actors hard on tone; Robert Aramayo's tics in *I Swear* were prepared at length, and the performance is the reason to see the film. Maxine Peake and Peter Mullan are used as well as you would hope. Henry Braham has photographed three of his films, and Jones is plainly a director people come back to. He can also be honest when he chooses. We found Shirley Henderson's kitchen scenes in *I Swear*, a mother who cannot bring herself to touch her son, harder to sit through than anything John shouts in public, and the film's refusal to make a monster of her is its best decision.

What does not work is the softness everywhere else. Jones does not do friction. Every awkward stranger relents on schedule, every institution comes round, and a life that must have held a great deal of unresolved unpleasantness is resolved, pleasantly, in 121 minutes. We scored *I Swear* 70 and most critics have been kinder, which we understand; it is hard to hold the manner against a film this decent about its subject. But the manner has not changed since 1998.

He has said that the best way to educate is to entertain at the same time, and every film he has made believes it. Next he is attached to a live-action *Mr Benn*. We expect it to be warm, tidy and well cast, and to send us out feeling better about people. We would like, one day, to come out surprised.

## Biography

Kirk Jones is an English film director and screenwriter. Born on 31 October 1964 in Bristol, he grew up in Long Ashton and studied at Newport Film School from 1985 to 1987, specialising in directing drama and television commercials.

He began his career directing commercials before making his feature debut with *Waking Ned* (1998, also known as *Waking Ned Devine*), which he wrote and directed and for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer. Subsequent films include *Nanny McPhee* (2005), *Everybody's Fine* (2009), *What to Expect When You're Expecting* (2012) and *My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2* (2016).

Jones wrote, directed and produced the 2025 biographical comedy-drama *I Swear*, based on the life of Tourette’s syndrome campaigner John Davidson. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the UK by StudioCanal.

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

## On Fi1m (1)

- *I Swear* (2025), Fi1m 70, Writer, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/i-swear.md)

## Complete filmography (8)

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

- *I Swear* (2025), Writer, Producer, Director — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/i-swear.md)
- *My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2* (2016), Director
- *What to Expect When You're Expecting* (2012), Director
- *Everybody's Fine* (2009), Director, Screenplay
- *Malamaal Weekly* (2006), Original Story
- *Nanny McPhee* (2005), Director
- *Waking Ned* (1998), Director, Writer
- *Mr Benn*, Director, Screenplay, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-ea43f3b7349c.jpg) Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York — David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone.JPG/1280px-Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Director Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-71331087aa35.jpg) Director Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York — What_to_Expect_When_Expecting_2012_Shankbone.JPG: David Shankbone
derivative work: RanZag, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Kirk_Jones_at_What_to_Expect_When_You%27re_Expecting_premiere%2C_New_York_2012.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Kirk Jones](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-09e2ad53c035.jpg) Kirk Jones — David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone_2.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Brooklyn Decker and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-97026b9f9a8c.jpg) Brooklyn Decker and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York — David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Brooklyn_Decker_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone_2.JPG/1280px-Brooklyn_Decker_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone_2.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Brooklyn Decker and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-e7f7c10cac3a.jpg) Brooklyn Decker and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York — David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Brooklyn_Decker_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone_3.JPG/1280px-Brooklyn_Decker_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone_3.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Chace Crawford and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York](https://film.one/media/person/3785552/gallery-99fc8d2844c7.jpg) Chace Crawford and Kirk Jones at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting in New York — David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Chace_Crawford_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone.JPG/1280px-Chace_Crawford_Kirk_Jones_2012_Shankbone.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© 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/kirk-jones