In 2011, McDowell's
Twitter feed, @charliemcdowell, was described by
Time as "one of the most hilarious Twitter feeds out there," and in 2013
Three Rivers Press published McDowell's book,
Dear Girls Above Me, based on his Twitter feed. His debut film,
The One I Love, starring
Mark Duplass and
Elisabeth Moss had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, where shortly after it was acquired by
RADiUS-TWC and released in August 2014. In 2015, McDowell directed
Sarah Silverman's untitled
HBO series pilot. The project was not picked up by the network. McDowell's next film,
The Discovery, starred
Rooney Mara,
Jason Segel, and
Robert Redford. The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by
Netflix for a global release in 2017. In March 2017, filmmaker McDowell announced he was adapting author
Don DeLillo's novel
Zero K as a limited series for
FX with
Noah Hawley and
Scott Rudin producing. McDowell previously directed an episode of Hawley's television series
Legion, also for FX. In 2019, McDowell directed the first and last episodes of the
Showtime series
On Becoming a God in Central Florida and also served as an executive producer. He also directed episodes of
Silicon Valley,
Dear White People,
Tales from the Loop, and
Dispatches from Elsewhere. His next film,
Gilded Rage, was based on the infamous murder of investment banker Thomas Gilbert Sr.
Bill Skarsgård and
Christoph Waltz were set to portray the character in different periods of his life. Lily Collins was also set to star in the film. ==Personal life==