Jason Lei Howden is a writer and director based in Wellington, New Zealand. He was born in Greymouth, grew up in Nelson and studied film in Wellington.
​He is known for crazy, over-the-top horror and action comedy, though works in other genres too.

His first feature Deathgasm
 premiered at South by South West in 2015 and played in over 50 international film festivals. It collected multiple awards including audience choice awards, Best Director at the Knoxville Horror Film Festival, Best Film at Toronto After Dark, and Best Feature Screenplay from the New Zealand Writers Guild.
​In 2018, Jason wrote the feature film adaptation of Dead Island, the hit zombie video game by Deep Silver and has recently finished a script for Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon.

His second feature, Guns Akimbo starring Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in 2020 and 2021.

Jason is also a VFX artist and has worked at Weta Digital, Iloura, Method Studios and Park Road Post. His VFX credits include The Avengers, Prometheus, The Hobbit Trilogy, The Great Gatsby, The Wolverine, Man of Steel and War of the Planet of the Apes.