Timur Bekmambetov

Born 25 June 1961 in Guryev, Kazakh SSR, USSR [now Atyrau, Kazakhstan]

Timur Bekmambetov is a Kazakh-Russian filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter best known for directing Night Watch and Wanted, as well as pioneering the modern screenlife format. Through films including Unfriended, Searching, Profile, and Missing, Bekmambetov helped establish screenlife storytelling as a major evolution of found footage and digital-era horror. His work popularized films told entirely through computer screens, video calls, and mobile devices, influencing a new generation of internet-native thriller and horror filmmaking.