Cretton was born and raised in Haiku, Hawaii on the island of Maui. He is of half-Japanese descent.[2][3] He was home-schooled by his Christian mother.[4][5] His sister Joy is a costume designer who has worked on several of Destin's projects.[6] He lived in Haiku in a two-bedroom house with his five siblings,[7] until he was 19 years old. He moved to San Diego, California to attend Point Loma Nazarene University, where he majored in communications.[8] After graduating, Cretton worked for two years as a staff person at a group home for at-risk teenagers.[9][10]
He made short films as a hobby, which developed as a vocational path. He attended and graduated from film school at San Diego State University.[9]
While at San Diego State University, Cretton made a 22-minute short film, Short Term 12, based on his experiences at the facility for teenagers. The short film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking.[11]
The film premiered on March 10, 2013, at South by Southwest, where it won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for a Narrative Feature.[15] Widely acclaimed as one of the best films of 2013, it was listed on many film critics' annual top ten lists.[16] The film earned several accolades, including three Independent Spirit Award nominations.[17]
In 2014, Cretton was attached to rewrite the script and direct The Glass Castle, an adaptation of Jeannette Walls' 2005 best-selling memoir of the same name about a successful young woman raised by severely dysfunctional parents.[18] Starring Brie Larson, the film also features Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts as her alcoholic father and eccentric mother, respectively.[19] Larson's role was originally considered by Jennifer Lawrence, but she dropped out while the studio was seeking the male lead.[20] The film was released on August 10, 2017.[19] It received mixed reviews from critics; they praised the performances of its cast (particularly Larson and Harrelson) but criticized the emotional tones and adaptation of the source material.[21]
In 2016, it was announced that Ryan Coogler had teamed up with Cretton and poet/playwright Chinaka Hodge to develop Minors, a television drama series produced by Charles D. King. Drawing from Cretton's experiences working in residential foster care, Hodge's background teaching under-served youth in San Francisco Bay area continuation schools and Coogler's upbringing in the East Bay, Minors promises to take an unflinching look at institutionalization, exploring juvenile facilities and the children who grow up in that system. The series will show how that system shapes young people over a one-year period. Hodge will write the series, and Coogler and Cretton will direct.[22]
In March 2019, Cretton was hired by Marvel Studios to direct a film based on Shang-Chi.[27] Both the film and Cretton's involvement were confirmed during the San Diego Comic-Con 2019, with the film being titled Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.[28] The film, which is Marvel's first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist,[23] stars Simu Liu as the title character, with Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Awkwafina co-starring.[28] On January 5, 2020, Cretton said that he signed up to the project because he wanted "to give [his] son a superhero to look up to".[29] The film was set to be released on February 12, 2021,[28] but was delayed to May 7[30] and later July 9[31] due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Shang-Chi's production in Australia was temporarily suspended while Cretton self-isolated. Production was halted on March 12, 2020,[32] and resumed in August 2020 and concluded in October 2020. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was released in theaters on September 3, 2021.[33] In December 2021, Cretton signed a deal with Marvel Studios and Hulu's Onyx Collective to develop a Shang-Chi sequel and new Disney+ MCU series through his production banner Family Owned.[34] In June 2022, the series was revealed to be in early development and titled Wonder Man, centered on the character Simon Williams / Wonder Man, with Cretton directing two episodes of the series and developing it with series creator and showrunnerAndrew Guest.[35][36] In July, Cretton was confirmed as the director of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty for Marvel Studios.[37] In November 2023, Cretton stepped down as the director of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty to focus on other Marvel projects, such as the Shang-Chi sequel and Wonder Man.[36]
In December 2022, Cretton was revealed to be an executive producer on the short film Same Old, which was written and directed by Lloyd Lee Choi. Cretton is set to produce a feature-length film adaptation of the short, titled Lucky Lu, through his Family Owned banner alongside Ron Najor and Asher Goldstein, with Choi returning as writer and director.[38][39] The following year, Cretton was reported to be an executive producer on Choi's short film Closing Dynasty.[39]
^Wianecki, Shannon (October–November 2013). "Moving Pictures". Hana Hou!. Vol. 16, no. 5. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
