Jason Russell (born October 12, 1978) is an American film and theater director, choreographer, and activist who co-founded Invisible Children, Inc. He is the director of Kony 2012, a short documentary film that went viral in the beginning of March 2012. In the first two weeks it gained more than 83 million views on YouTube and became the subject of intensive media scrutiny and criticism. Its subject is the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, his alleged war crimes, and the movement to bring him to the International Criminal Court.

Biography

On October 23, 2004, he married Danica Jones in La Jolla, California. They have two children.

On March 15, 2012, at the height of the Kony 2012 video's viral popularity, San Diego police detained Russell for psychiatric evaluation during a public breakdown that was filmed and released online. In the video, a naked man alleged to be Russell, is seen hitting the ground, yelling and vandalizing cars.

Russell was subsequently hospitalized for several weeks. A statement by his family said the preliminary diagnosis was "brief reactive psychosis, an acute state brought on by extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration," as a result of the popularity of the campaign. The Hollywood Reporter described it as an "out of body experience". Russell, in an interview, said "that's not who I am".