Who is Peter Berg? Everything to know about this American director and film producer

Peter Berg is now an acclaimed director and film producer, but he began his career as an actor. His first screen role was in 1988's TV film, Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story. He went on to star in numerous projects like The Last Seduction and The Great White Hype.

In 1998, Berg made his directorial debut with the movie Very Bad Things, which has a Tomatometer score of 40%. Since then, he has directed many other acclaimed movies and shows, including Netflix's recent hit series, American Primeval.

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Peter Berg began his career as an actor

Peter Berg (Image via Instagram/@pberg44)

Peter Berg was born to U.S. Marine Laurence Berg and Sally Berg in 1964. After graduating from The Taft School in 1980, he enrolled in Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. According to an article published in The New York Times Magazine on August 15, 2013, he wanted to become an athlete but ended up joining the theater upon the insistence of a teacher.

He told the outlet:

"I love actors. I’m empathetic to them. I understand what they go through. But I didn’t want to be an actor."

Even so, after college, he appeared in many movies and shows before taking up directorial duties. When he landed a recurring role on the show Chicago Hope, he also got the opportunity to write and direct a few episodes. That was his first job as a director.

The actor-to-director pipeline in Hollywood is quite common. For instance, Mel Gibson, widely known for his titular role in the Mad Max franchise, directed the Academy Award-winning film Hacksaw Ridge. Even Barbie director Greta Gerwig starred in mumblecore films before turning to directing.

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Peter Berg's feature directorial debut was a disappointment

After Chicago Hope, Berg wrote and directed the 1998 dark comedy thriller Very Bad Things in his feature directorial debut. Starring Cameron Diaz and Jon Favreau in lead roles, the film follows five friends whose bachelor party takes a deadly turn when one of them accidentally kills a s*x worker, leading to a series of crimes as they attempt to cover it up.

As previously mentioned, the movie did not perform well with the critics and even bombed at the box office. Regarding this, he told The New York Times Magazine:

"I was going through a divorce. I was full of violent confusion, rage."

Berg was married to Elizabeth Rogers from 1993 to 1998. Per his claims, the divorce happened around the same time as he was making the film.

However, he seemingly appears to be on good terms with Rogers now. According to an Instagram post on his official account @pberg44, he officiated her wedding at Todos los Santos, Cabo San Lucas, last year.

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Peter Berg emerged as one of the best directors

Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg (Image via Instagram/@pberg44)

Peter Berg directed the 2004 television film Friday Night Lights, based on the 1990 non-fiction book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, who is Berg's second cousin. The success of this movie put him in the spotlight as a director.

From 2013 to 2020, Berg collaborated with Mark Wahlberg on five projects. Here is a list of those:

• The war film Lone Survivor (2013)
• The disaster drama Deepwater Horizon (2016)
• The Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots Day (2016)
• The action thriller Mile 22 (2018)
• The action comedy Spenser Confidential (2020)

Berg has also directed episodes of popular TV shows like Friday Night Lights based on his 2004 movie of the same name, The Leftovers, Prime Suspect, and American Primeval. The last of these is a Western TV miniseries that premiered on Netflix on January 9, 2025, and turned out to be a huge hit.