Edward Burns

Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Edward J. Burns, a police officer and public relations spokesman, and Molly (née McKenna), a federal agency manager.^[1] He was raised a Roman Catholic.^[2][3] Burns is the second of three children (with siblings Mary and Brian) and is of Irish and Swedish descent.^[4] He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island.^[5]

Burns got his start in the movie industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone movie The Doors. While working at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed, and was featured in his first movie The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely filmed in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the movie, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, Burns wrote, directed, and was featured in the ensemble drama She's The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet, as well as in Sidewalks of New York in 2001.

Burns also appeared in the movies Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digital Panasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The movie's entire budget was $200,000^[6][7] and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual movie-making process in the director's commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director's Letter "If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York ... and have a blast".^{[citation needed]}

His movie Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a series of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage midway through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler's boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage, Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new television show in which Johnny Drama is able to acquire a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper.^[8] Burns planned to use the comic series as a springboard to a movie of the same story.

In March 2009, a series of short movies called The Lynch Pin written and directed by Burns (who was also in the cast) were released via the internet.^[9]

With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns considered taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading scripts and attending meetings, he chose to remain an independent writer/director. Burns next wrote Nice Guy Johnny and filmed it quickly with the RED One camera for a reported $25,000 with a small crew.^[10] Nice Guy Johnny premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.^[11]

To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote Newlyweds, which he also directed and starred in. Conforming to a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was filmed in 12 days for $9000 with a Canon 5D camera and an even smaller crew.^[12] The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the final night movie.^[13] He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget was "5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can."^[14] In 2013, Burns featured as real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in Frank Darabont's miniseries Mob City.

In 2012, Burns set up a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intended to help get produced.^[15]

In 2024, Burns began production in the Republic of Ireland on his golf-based film Finnegan's Foursome.^[16]

Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and they have two children, a daughter born in 2003 and a son born in 2006. He and Turlington are Catholic. He is an advisor to ICX Media, an ad-tech audience analytics data company.^[17]