Peter Lauer

Peter Lauer began his directing career in music videos, and later worked on slightly unconventional family and pre-teen sitcoms; he then moved on to more adult-centered quirky comedies in the late 1990s and 2000s. His television series debut came in 1993 with the Nickelodeon comedy series "The Adventures of Pete and Pete"-- a surreal, fast-paced show following two young, intelligent, and offbeat brothers. Success there led to Lauer directing two episodes of another Nickelodeon show, "The Secret World of Alex Mack," whose main character is a charismatic pre-teen struggling to hide her telekinetic and shape-shifting powers in the world of suburban middle school. In 1999, Lauer directed a number of episodes for the idiosyncratic Comedy Central series "Strangers with Candy"-- a show that pokes fun at the afterschool specials of the 1970s, starring Amy Sedaris as a 46-year-old ex-drug addict who returns to high school as a freshman. In 2004, Lauer directed numerous episodes of two major critically-acclaimed and award-winning comedies: "Malcolm in the Middle," a family-based sitcom starring Frankie Muniz as a boy genius; and "Arrested Development," a postmodern family comedy with Ron Howard as both narrator and executive producer. Later on in the decade, Lauer worked on the Zach Braff hospital comedy "Scrubs," which showcased Lauer's strengths well, as the series featured both surreal comedic elements and frequent daydream sequences reminiscent of what made "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" unique.