Alexander Payne Movies and Career Information

Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne, a Greek American (his grandfather's family name was Anglicized from Papadopoulos), was born in Omaha, Nebraska to parents who were restaurant owners. He was the youngest of three sons and grew up in the same neighborhood as billionaire Warren Buffett. Payne attended Creighton Preparatory School high school and later Stanford University, where he double majored in Spanish and History. As a part of his Spanish degree, he studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Payne got his MFA in 1990 from the UCLA Film School. Payne worked in various capacities on films and television before he wrote and directed his first full-length film Citizen Ruth in 1995. His film Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, which takes aim at politics and education in America, attracted attention when New Yorker film critic David Denby named it the best film of 1999. Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election. In 2000 he did an uncredited