He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. This led to commissions for other artists around the world, including Massive Attack. He also made a lot of commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.

Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature, adapting a Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.


In his video clips and commercials, he was a pioneer for a lot of things. For example the video clip he made for IAM (Je danse le Mia) was the first video clip using the morphing technics. And above all he invented the technique of several cameras taking pictures in the same time around somebody. This technique was used for the first time in a commercial for insurance, then in Björk's "Army of Me" video clip and in The Matrix (1999). Played drums on Kanye West's hit single "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005) His 1994 "Drugstore" spot for Levi's 501 Jeans holds the record for most awards won by a TV commercial. Brother of Olivier Gondry. Brother of Olivier Gondry. His grandfather, Constant Martin, invented the clavioline, one of the first keyboard synthesizers. His father programmed computers. His mother was a pianist. Has a son called Paul. Spike Jonze suggested him for the studio, to direct Human Nature (2001). At the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, he told that the main location of La science des rêves (2006) is a house where he used to live 15 years ago.