Joseph Kahn

Joseph Kahn earns my respect for elevating the music video, a form often treated as disposable, into a real directorial signature. Born in Busan and raised in America, he has shot for Taylor Swift, Eminem, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and a who's who of pop. People underrate how hard it is to build an entire world in a few minutes, but I think it takes more discipline than feature work in some ways. He is a craftsman of compression. I am quietly impressed that a Korean American has shaped so much of pop culture's visual language from behind the camera.

Name (English)

Joseph Kahn

Name (Japanese)

ジョセフ・カーン

Reading

じょせふ・かーん

Born

October 12, 1972 (age 53)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Rat

Origin

Busan, South Korea

Occupation

music video director / film director / screenwriter / cinematographer / director

High school

Jersey Village High School

University

New York University Tisch School of the Arts

• Official sitehttps://www.josephkahn.com
• Xhttps://x.com/JosephKahn
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%20Kahn%20(director)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1363428

Tags

• music video director
• film director
• screenwriter

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.