Benny Safdie

Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986) is an American filmmaker and actor, most known for his film collaborations with his elder brother, Josh, in Heaven Knows What (2014), Good Time (2017), which he also starred in, and Uncut Gems (2019).

Safdie's career additionally includes co-creating, writing, and acting in the satirical series The Curse (2023) with comedian Nathan Fielder, and his solo directorial debut The Smashing Machine (2025), for which he won the Silver Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.

For his role in Good Time as Nick, Safdie was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male, and has since starred in Licorice Pizza (2021), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (2023), Oppenheimer (2023), Happy Gilmore 2 (2025) and Bowser Jr. in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026).

Safdie's parents are Amy and Alberto Safdie. He is of Syrian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent on his mother's side. He was raised in New York. When their parents divorced, he and brother Josh divided their time between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan. He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School and graduated from the Boston University College of Communication in 2008.

The Safdies' first feature was the 2009 film Daddy Longlegs: they also wrote the screenplay and edited the film together. The film was showcased in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, they debuted the documentary film Lenny Cooke at the Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary they became attached to after Cooke approached them to review the footage. In 2014, the pair premiered their next film Heaven Knows What at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In February 2016, the brothers began filming their crime thriller film Good Time, which Benny starred in alongside Robert Pattinson, in New York City. It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Benny, for his performance, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.

Uncut Gems, Josh and Benny's next film, starred Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield and Julia Fox; Martin Scorsese was executive producer. The brothers won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and Benny shared the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing with Ronald Bronstein, with whom he has co-edited all the Safdie brother films.

Safdie and Nathan Fielder co-created the Showtime series The Curse, which premiered in November 2023. The show, in which they also starred, received critical acclaim, and Safdie earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series.

Safdie then, in his first directorial endevour without his brother and his first solo writing credit, directed the MMA themed film The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson as former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The film premiered and the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where Safdie won the Silver Lion for Best Direction. The film received a theatrical release in October 2025 by A24.