Joel & Ethan Coen Biography and Photos

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are four-time Academy Award winning American filmmakers. For more than twenty years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to hard boiled (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men ), to movies where genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink and Burn After Reading). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share a similar vision of their films. Actors can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.