Bill Hader sets divorced-dad nightmare, They Know, as feature directorial debut

The Barry star will share the horrors of being a divorced dad in They Know, which begins production in LA this spring. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  February 19, 2026 | 4:34pm
(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Film News Bill Hader
Bill Hader sets divorced-dad nightmare, They Know, as feature directorial debut

Three years after he finished his brilliant HBO series Barry, Bill Hader has finally announced the feature film follow-up that NoHo Hank-heads have been waiting for. Per Deadline, Hader will co-write, direct, and star in They Know, a horror film about the nightmare of watching your ex-wife date. Expected to begin production in Los Angeles this spring and co-written by his Barry collaborator Duffy Bourdreau, the film sees Hader playing a divorced father who, according to the outlet, begins to suspect his ex-wife’s mysterious new boyfriend of having a “strange influence” on his kids. Hader, a divorced father in his own right, will likely mine his own experiences, insecurities, and fears as he did with Barry’s actor’s journey. He was married to writer-director Maggie Carrie from 2006 to 2018, and the couple had three children together. 

Hader has been talking about making a horror movie for years. In 2023, he told Deadline that he wrote a project with Bourdreau, his hometown best friend from Tulsa. “We’ve known each other since we were like 18, so you need that on set,” he said. “You need your friend from Oklahoma who goes, ‘Yeah, man. That sucks.’ ‘You should go again.’ Or he watches a cut and is like, ‘Well, that just seems corny, man.’ You need that guy who really has no skin in the game, has seen as many movies as I have and has read more books than I have, and just acts honestly, but then comes up with great stuff. We wrote a movie that I’d like to make at some point, which is kind of like what everybody usually does.” 

However, only a few months ago, he admitted to Ari Aster on the A24 Podcast that his confidence was shaken after he tried to get a horror movie made after Barry ended. “I had written a horror movie right after Barry wrapped, I didn’t really take a break,” he said. “I kind of went right into writing this feature, and I was like, ‘I’m going to make this feature.’ I had a meeting with a big producer – actually, a very smart, lovely guy. I won’t say who it was, but it’s just not for him. His response to it was so bad. He went, ‘This is so mean-spirit and horrible.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s a horror movie.’ He’s like, ‘But it’s so disturbing and cynical.’ I was like, ‘Did you not see my TV show?'” Was that horror movie They Know? We’ll know if the movie turns out to be mean-spirited, disturbing, cynical, and horrible. 

 
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