John O’Hagan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He attended Brown University and New York University where he received an MFA in Film. His thesis project, a feature-length documentary named Wonderland, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win several Best Documentary awards at film festivals around the world.
In 1999, O’Hagan began directing television commercials. His directorial debut, “Arctic Ground Squirrel” for Dial-A-Mattress went on to win a Cannes Gold Lion as well as a CLIO and several other awards. He followed this success the next year with another Gold Lion, CLIO Best of Show, and Emmy Nomination for his work on the Outpost.com campaign.
O’Hagan has since gone on to win numerous industry awards for a wide range of international work, establishing himself as one of the top visual-comedy directors in the world. He has directed acclaimed campaigns for clients such as Mercedes, Microsoft, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Range Rover, Adidas, Smirnoff, and is probably best known for his commercial “Cat Herders” for EDS, another Cannes Lion winner.
O’Hagan currently lives in Prague and is trying to re-store and an old 1973 Skoda 100 but is having trouble finding a good carburetor that will fit.