Neil Druckmann (Hebrew: ניל דרוקמן; born December 5, 1978) is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog, best known for his work on the Uncharted and The Last of Us video game franchises. He was born and raised until the age of 10 in Israel, where his experiences with entertainment would later influence his storytelling techniques. He studied computer science at Florida State University and entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University before searching for work in the video game industry. Druckmann's first video game work was as an intern at Naughty Dog. In 2004, he became a programmer on Jak 3 (2004) and Jak X: Combat Racing (2005), before becoming a designer for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007). He was co-lead game designer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), which he co-wrote with Amy Hennig and Josh Scherr; the narrative was praised and received several accolades. Druckmann has written comics, including the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra (2009) and graphic novels A Second Chance at Sarah (2010) and The Last of Us: American Dreams (2013). Druckmann led development of The Last of Us (2013) as writer and creative director, roles he continued for The Last …
Neil Druckmann
Author details
- Born:
- Dec. 5, 1978
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Neil Druckmann (Hebrew: ניל דרוקמן; born December 5, 1978) is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog, best known for his work on the Uncharted and The Last of Us video game franchises. He was born and raised until the age of 10 in Israel, where his experiences with entertainment would later influence his storytelling techniques. He studied computer science at Florida State University and entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University before searching for work in the video game industry. Druckmann's first video game work was as an intern at Naughty Dog. In 2004, he became a programmer on Jak 3 (2004) and Jak X: Combat Racing (2005), before becoming a designer for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007). He was co-lead game designer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), which he co-wrote with Amy Hennig and Josh Scherr; the narrative was praised and received several accolades. Druckmann has written comics, including the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra (2009) and graphic novels A Second Chance at Sarah (2010) and The Last of Us: American Dreams (2013). Druckmann led development of The Last of Us (2013) as writer and creative director, roles he continued for The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014) and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016), the latter co-written with Scherr. All three games were directed by Bruce Straley, with whom Druckmann developed a close working relationship. He was promoted to vice president of Naughty Dog in 2018 during the development of The Last of Us Part II (2020), for which he was creative director and co-writer with Halley Gross. Druckmann has earned praise for his writing and directing work on The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us Part II. The games are often regarded as among the best-written and have been listed as some of the greatest video games ever made. Druckmann has received several awards, including three British Academy Games Awards, four D.I.C.E. Awards, two Game Awards, three Game Developers Choice Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards. He was promoted to co-president of Naughty Dog alongside Evan Wells in 2020. Druckmann and Craig Mazin are the creators, writers, and executive producers for the television adaptation of The Last of Us for HBO, for which Druckmann directed an episode.
