Alex Winter began his career as a child actor, co-starring in the Broadway productions of The King & I with Yul Brynner, Peter Pan with Sandy Duncan, and the American premiere of Simon Gray's Close of Play at the Manhattan Theater Club.
After attending NYU film school, Winter went on to have starring roles in several feature films, including Orion's huge hit Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure and its sequel Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, the Warner Brothers cult favorite The Lost Boys, Ivan Passer's Haunted Summer and Percy Adlon's Rosalie Goes Shopping.
Winter starred in and co-directed, co-wrote the hit MTV comedy series The Idiot Box, and starred in his theatrical co-directing debut, Freaked, released by Twentieth Century Fox.
Freaked was acclaimed by critics, including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, who heralded the film on their list of "Top Ten Greatest Comedies of the Nineties."
Winter's first solo-directed feature came next, with Fever for Lionsgate, which screened in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.
Written and directed by Winter, The New York Times A.O. Scott praised the film as "Pure Hitchcockian panic."
Winter is the founder of Trouper Productions, which services his narrative and documentary work.
Previous documentary work includes multiple award-winner The Panama Papers, executive produced by Laura Poitras, about the largest global corruption scandal in history, and the journalists who worked in secret and at considerable risk to break the story.
And Trust Machine, about the phenomenon of Bitcoin and the blockchain.
The documentary Deep Web examines the online black-market Silk Road and the trial of its creator Ross Ulbricht.
The film premiered on the MGM network, earning a Cinema Eye nomination among several award wins.
Downloaded is a VH1 RockDoc about Napster and the digital revolution.
The film premiered at SXSW, garnering worldwide critical acclaim.
In 2020, Winter co-starred in the highly anticipated third installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, Bill & Ted Face The Music, which opened as the number one movie in the U.S. and internationally.
That year, Winter released two new documentary feature films, Showbiz Kids, which premiered on HBO to widespread critical acclaim, garnering a Critics' Choice nomination for Best Score by Tweedy-followed by Zappa, the first all-access documentary on the life and times of Frank Zappa.
The Kickstarter campaign for this project was the highest-funded documentary in crowdfunding history.
Magnolia Pictures released Zappa to widespread critical acclaim.
A Critics Pick in the New York Times, Zappa was nominated for Best Music Documentary by the Critics' Choice Awards.
In 2022, Winter completed his documentary The YouTube Effect, produced by Winter in partnership with Gale Anne Hurd and Glen Zipper.
The film premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival before a sold-out theatrical run in July 2023.
Winter's latest acting projects include co-starring roles in the gonzo horror-comedy Destroy All Neighbors, which premiered on Shudder and in theaters in January 2024, the upcoming Absolute Dominion from acclaimed director Lexi Alexander, and the animated movie Smurfs from Paramount Pictures.
Winter recently directed and acted in the feature film Adulthood, starring Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario, due for release in 2025.
In the fall of this year, Winter will return to Broadway, co-starring with Keanu Reeves in Waiting For Godot, directed by Jamie Lloyd.
