David Ayer is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A former American Navy submariner, Ayer is best known for his work on the movies Training Day, Fury, and DC Comics` Suicide Squad.

Early Life
Ayer was born on 18 January 1968 in Champaign, Illinois, USA but raised in Bloomington, Minnesota and Bethesda, Maryland. The director says that he had an extremely rough childhood. His father died when he was quite young and he was kicked out of his home by his mother when he was merely a teenager. Ayer then moved into his cousin`s place in Los Angeles, California, USA before enlisting as a submariner in the United States Navy.

Personal Life
David Ayer is married to a Mexican-American, Maria Ayer. The Hollywood director is reportedly a staunch follower of Christianity.

Movie Career
David Ayer broke into the film industry in the year 2000, when he was roped in for director Jonathan Mostow`s war film U-571. Ayer wrote the screenplay for the film, which was appreciated by fans as well as the critics. The following year, he co-wrote the screenplay for the crime action film The Fast and the Furious (2001), which lay down the foundations for one of Hollywood`s most successful film franchises of all time. After writing the screenplay for the film Dark Blue, which eventually released in 2002, David Ayer wrote the script for Training Day (2001), a crime thriller starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, who play the roles of two LAPD officers caught in the midst of a drug riot. This film was universally appreciated and is widely credited as one of David Ayer`s best films.

Soon after co-writing the script for the action-crime-thriller S.W.A.T. (2003), Ayer made his directorial debut with the Christian Bale-starrer Harsh Times (2005). Not only did Ayer direct the film but he also wrote it. He says that he based many of the characters on people he actually knew. Harsh Times was reasonably well received by the fans and critics. After directing the sub-par multi-starrer Street Kings (2008), Ayer wrote and directed the crime drama End of Watch (2012), starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. The film was made on a relatively modest budget of seven million USD but went on to earn over 55 million USD at the box office.

David Ayer had a mixed 2014. He wrote and directed two films- Sabotage (2014) and Fury (2014). Sabotage, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was heavily criticized and was a massive flop at the box office, barely recovering even half the film`s production costs. However, Fury was lauded by fans and critics alike, grossing over 200 million USD worldwide. The movie, starring Brad Pitt, is a war film about American soldiers in Nazi Germany at the tail end of the Second World War. In October 2014, David Ayer was signed on by Warner Bros. Pictures to write and direct DC Comics` superhero film Suicide Squad (2016) and Birds Of Prey (2020).