Christopher McQuarrie

Christopher McQuarrie
McQuarrie at the premiere of Jack Reacher, 2012
Born	(1968-06-12) June 12, 1968 (age 48) Princeton, New Jersey or Princeton Junction, New Jersey, United States (sources differ)
Occupation	Screenwriter, film producer, director
Years active	1993 – present

Christopher McQuarrie (born June 12, 1968) is an American screenwriter, director and producer. A regular collaborator of director Bryan Singer, he co-wrote the screenplay of Singer's Public Access, wrote the screenplay for The Usual Suspects, co-wrote and produced Valkyrie and co-wrote Jack the Giant Slayer and Edge of Tomorrow.

McQuarrie won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Usual Suspects. McQuarrie wrote and directed The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher and directed Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, his fourth collaboration with actor and producer Tom Cruise, after Valkyrie, Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow. He also created the 2010 NBC television series Persons Unknown.

McQuarrie was born in 1968 in either Princeton, New Jersey or Princeton Junction, New Jersey, a nearby unincorporated community, where he was raised. After graduating from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in 1986, he worked as an assistant at Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, Western Australia, recalling in 2013, “I was offered an Interim program. ... I picked a place out of a hat and ended up at Christ Church Grammar School. I lived at the school and worked at the boarding school, though I did very little work". Fired after nine months, "I hitchhiked for three months, came home, knocked around for about a month and then immediately started working for this detective agency.... [It] was actually a glorified security-guard position. I think in the four years I worked there I did about six investigations...."