Born in New York in 1979, Jordan Peele was a comedian who found fame as half of the sketch show Key & Peele, with Keegan-Michael Key, before turning to directing. Get Out (2017), a horror film about a young Black man's weekend with his white girlfriend's family, was a surprise hit that turned racial anxiety into a thriller and won Peele the Oscar for best original screenplay, the first for a Black writer in the category. He followed it with Us (2019) and Nope (2022), and also produces and presents.