David Ayer

David Ayer
David Ayer at the premiere of Fury at the Newseum in Washington D.C., October 2014.
Born	(1968-01-18) January 18, 1968 (age 49) Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Years active	2000–present
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1986–1988

David Ayer (born January 18, 1968) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for being the writer of Training Day (2001), and the director and writer of Harsh Times (2005), Street Kings (2008), End of Watch (2012), Sabotage (2014), Fury (2014), and Suicide Squad (2016).

Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois, on January 18, 1968, and grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager. Ayer then lived with his cousin in Los Angeles, California, where his experiences in South Central Los Angeles became the inspiration for many of his films. Ayer then enlisted in the United States Navy as a submariner. According to Shia LaBeouf, who starred in Ayer's film Fury, Ayer is "a full subscriber to Christianity."

Ayer's screenplay, U-571 was based on his experiences as a Submariner in the US Navy. Ayer collaborated on the screenplay for The Fast and the Furious in 2001. Ayer wrote the screenplay for crime drama Dark Blue, and it was his research into the Los Angeles Police Department that led to his most prominent screenplay, Training Day. Ayer signed a contract to write a screenplay for S.W.A.T., which was based on his original story pitch. The film was directed by Clark Johnson and released in 2003.