About

Peter Atencio is a film and television director, producer, and writer based in Los Angeles. His 20 year career has established him as one of the most exciting and original voices in contemporary filmmaking and his work has entertained audiences worldwide. As a pioneer in the low budget sketch comedy boom of the late 2000s, he helped drive an exponential rise in viewership of online content, and today the over 2 billion views his work has drawn on youtube alone serves as a testament to his mark on the discipline.

He won a primetime Emmy award while serving as the director and executive producer of the hit sketch comedy series Key & Peele for Best Variety Sketch series in 2016, and was nominated for two more Emmys during the show's legendary five season run. Atencio directed every episode and won a Peabody Award and an American Comedy Award for his work, as well as a nomination for an NAACP Image Award for best television director.

After ending the series, he and stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele re-teamed in movie theaters for 2016's KEANU, an action comedy for Warner Bros and New Line Pictures. Next, he directed the Amazon Studios / Scott Free original series Jean-Claude Van Johnson, along with fellow executive producer Ridley Scott and creator Dave Callaham. He then relocated to Prague to showrun and direct the action dramedy Whiskey Cavalier for Bill Lawrence's Doozer Productions and Warner Bros. television. The show aired on ABC in the United States and internationally in over 60 countries. As an in-demand television director he's worked on multiple other high-profile shows, including Jordan’s Peele’s The Twilight Zone for Paramount Plus, The Last Man On Earth for the FOX network, and Phil Lord & Chris Miller's The Afterpar ty for Apple TV+.

His next feature film is the action comedy The Machine starring Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill, which he directed and produced. Set 23 years after the original story which inspired it, The Machine finds comedian Bert Kreischer facing familial crisis and the arrival of his estranged father (Mark Hamill) when the ghost of his booze-soaked past arrives: a murderous mobster (Iva Babić) hellbent on kidnapping Bert back to the motherland to atone for his crimes. Together, he and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war between a sociopathic crime family while they attempt to find common ground. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on May 26th, 2023 by Legendary Entertainment and Sony Pictures / Screen Gems.

In addition to his narrative work, he is a prolific commercial director, creating innovative, visually stunning work for a variety of clients, including Pepsi, Taco Bell, Twitter, State Farm, Honda, Frito-Lay, and more; and has won numerous advertising industry awards including three Clio Awards. He's represented globally for advertising by Ridley Scott & Associates. He is represented by UTA for film and television projects.

To contact Peter:

Feature Films - UTA / Jason Burns
Television - UTA / Matt Rice
Advertising - RSA Films / Luke Ricci
Manager - Artists First / Peter Principato