James Wan was born on February 26, 1977 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. He is a writer and director, known for Saw (2004), The Conjuring (2013), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) and The Fast & Furious (2014).

Before his success in the mainstream film industry, he made his first feature length film, Stygian, with Shannon Young, which won “Best Guerrilla Film” at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) in 2000.

Since creating the franchise, Wan and Leigh Whannell have served as executive producers to the sequels Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV.

As of 11 April 2013, Wan entered into negotiations with Universal Pictures to direct the seventh installment of the Fast and Furious action franchise after Justin Lin, who directed the previous four sequels, confirmed that he would not continue as director in January 2013. Wan was an inclusion on a directorial shortlist alongside Jeff Wadlow, Baltazar Kormakur and Harold Zwart. A final confirmation of Wan’s directorial role was revealed on 17 April 2013.