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Film & TV

Mark Waters

born 1964 · film director

Director of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, born in Wyandotte and raised in South Bend, Indiana.

Born

Wyandotte, Michigan
age 62
Birth name
Mark Stephen Waters
Field
Film & TV

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Mark Waters was born in Wyandotte, a Downriver city south of Detroit, in 1964, but grew up in South Bend, Indiana, so his Detroit-area connection is his birth. His older brother is the screenwriter Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers. Mark studied and worked in theater before moving into film, and after the indie drama The House of Yes (1997) he found his niche in sharp, female-led comedies. Freaky Friday (2003), with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, was a hit, and he reunited with Lohan for Mean Girls (2004), written by Tina Fey, a film whose catchphrases became part of everyday speech. His later work includes Just Like Heaven, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Mr. Popper's Penguins and the Christmas comedy Bad Santa 2, as well as television episodes.

Highlights

  1. Directed Mean Girls (2004), written by Tina Fey
  2. Directed Freaky Friday (2003)
  3. Directed The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) and Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)
  4. Younger brother of Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters