Dominic Sena
Encyclopedia
Life and career
Sena was born in Niles, OhioNiles, Ohio
Niles is a city in Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. The city's population was 20,932 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. He is of Italian-American heritage. His family hails from the town of Bagnoli Irpino
Bagnoli Irpino
Bagnoli Irpino is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy.The bordering municipalities of Bagnoli are Acerno , Calabritto, Caposele, Lioni, Montella and Nusco....
, Avellino, Italy. As one of the founders of Propaganda Films
Propaganda Films
Propaganda Films was a prolific and successful music video and film production company founded in 1983 by producers Steve Golin and Sigurjón Sighvatsson and directors David Fincher, Nigel Dick, Greg Gold and Dominic Sena...
, Sena worked primarily in music videos early in his career. Sena directed several of Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
's image re-defining music videos from her Rhythm Nation 1814
Rhythm Nation 1814
Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on September 19, 1989, by A&M Records. Despite demands from label executives for material similar to her previous album, Control , she insisted on creating a concept album addressing...
album. In 1993, Sena directed his first film, Kalifornia
Kalifornia
Kalifornia is an American thriller/road film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes. The film focuses on an aspiring writer and his photographer girlfriend who are traveling cross-country to research serial killers...
, which starred future Hollywood stars Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
and David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
. While the film garnered good reviews, it would be seven more years before Sena stepped behind the camera again.
In 2000, Sena reappeared with the film Gone in 60 Seconds featuring Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
, and Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
. The following year brought Swordfish
Swordfish (film)
Swordfish is a 2001 crime-thriller film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones. The film is an action thriller that was also notable for Halle Berry's first topless scene...
starring Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
, John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
, and Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
.
Filmography
- Rhythm Nation 1814Rhythm Nation 1814Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on September 19, 1989, by A&M Records. Despite demands from label executives for material similar to her previous album, Control , she insisted on creating a concept album addressing...
(1989) - Janet Jackson: The Rhythm Nation Compilation (1990) (V) (videos "Rhythm Nation", "Miss You Much", "Come Back to Me")
- KaliforniaKaliforniaKalifornia is an American thriller/road film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes. The film focuses on an aspiring writer and his photographer girlfriend who are traveling cross-country to research serial killers...
(1993) - The Best of Sting: Fields of Gold 1984–1994 (1994) (V) (video "They Dance Alone")
- Janet Jackson: Design of a Decade 1986/1996 (1996) (V) (videos "The Pleasure Principle", "Let's Wait Awhile", "Rhythm Nation", "Come Back to Me" and "Miss You Much")
- Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
- SwordfishSwordfish (film)Swordfish is a 2001 crime-thriller film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones. The film is an action thriller that was also notable for Halle Berry's first topless scene...
(2001) - From Janet. To Damita Jo: The Videos (2004) (V) (video "If")
- 13 Graves (2006) (TV)
- Whiteout (2009)
- Season of the Witch (2011)