On November 15, the Latino Committee presented a special evening in honor of Director Miguel Arteta. Entitled, An Enlightened Evening with Director Miguel Arteta, the evening was a celebration of Arteta’s career which has moved fluidly between directing feature films such as The Good Girl, Youth in Revolt and Cedar Rapids; and television shows, such as The Office, American Horror Story and Nurse Jackie the new HBO hit series, Enlightened.
After welcoming messages from DGA Associate National Executive Director/Western Executive Director G. Bryan Unger and Latino Committee Co-Chair A.P. Gonzalez, the DGA Los Angeles Theater audience was treated to a retrospective reel of memorable clips from Arteta’s work edited by Joshua Kirchmer, Pamela Martin, and Staci Pontius. Then the guest of honor sat down for an entertaining conversation about his career moderated by writer/director/actor/producer Mike White who has collaborated with Arteta on several projects such as the feature films Star Maps, Chuck & Buck, and shares executive producing duties with Arteta on Enlightened.
At the end of the discussion, the audience was treated to appearances by special surprise guests: actors John C. Reilly who worked with Arteta on feature films such as Cedar Rapids and the short Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?; and Michael Cera who starred in Arteta’s feature Youth in Revolt. The evening concluded with Co-Chair A. P. Gonzalez’s presentation to Arteta of a gift from the Committee.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Arteta studied film at Wesleyan University and The American Film Institute. His first feature, Star Maps, written and developed at the Sundance Institute Writers Lab, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. The critical success of Star Maps paved the way for his next feature, the Independent Spirit Award-winning, Chuck & Buck, while also boosting his television career as he helmed episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Freaks and Geeks and Six Feet Under. Arteta has continued to move between directing feature films and television. His success as a multi-talented writer, producer and director created the opportunity for him to co-executive produce the HBO hit series, Enlightened.
Arteta has been a DGA member since 1999.