James Francis Gunn, Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and actor. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s. He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film Slither (2006), and later Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and The Suicide Squad (2021).