‘I, Tonya’ Director Craig Gillespie Picks Up ‘Peep Show’ Producer Andrew O’Connor’s L.A. Home (EXCLUSIVE)
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Former child magician Andrew O’Connor, English co-creator/producer of the BAFTA Award winning “Peep Show” series, set his warmly contemporary, custom-designed residence in L.A.’s Brentwood area out for sale in early April (2018) and, lickety-split sold the photogenic spread less than two months later for $12.05 million — a bit above it’s $11.995 million asking price — to Australian “I, Tonya” director Craig Gillespie.
Purchased in spring of 2015 for $6.6 million and concealed behind a high hedge and secured gates with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, the 5,233-square-foot, multi-winged two-story residence was re-worked for O’Connor by Los Angeles-based architect Steve Giannetti in a fashion described in marketing materials as “reminiscent of a Napa Valley Resort” with reclaimed wood floorboards and ceiling beams, smooth plaster walls and soaring expanses of steel-trimmed windows and sliders that facilitate a quintessentially Californian indoor-outdoor lifestyle.
Handcrafted wood entry doors open directly into a light-filled double-height living room that features a vintage brick fireplace while the dining area is tucked more intimately beneath a lofted office area that’s open to the upper part of the living room over a glass railing. The casual, cook-friendly kitchen is decked out top-end designer appliances, imported brass fixtures and a separate scullery; a cozy den/library has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and the family room does double duty as a screening room with a built-in projection system and drop down movie screen. The gravelled and wind-protected entry courtyard at the front of the house includes an outdoor fireplace while trellis sheltered dining and lounging patios along the back of the house step down to a great sweep of thick lawn alongside an infinity edged swimming pool that gives the impression of floating on the treetops of the canyon below.
O’Connor, who has produced a slew of documentary-style programs starring English mentalist Derren Brown, previously owned a more traditional Colonial mansion in Brentwood he scooped up in 2010 for $11 million and sold in 2015 for $13.177 to child actor turned prolific television producer Brian Robbins who listed the property for sale in April (2018) for $16.45 million after he paid “West Wing” and “Shameless” producer John Wells $12.412 million for a grand estate in L.A.’s Hancock Park neighborhood in late 2017.
As for Gillespie, an accomplished commercial director who also helmed the 2007 Oscar-nominated indie rom-com “Lars and the Real Girl,” in the spring of 2017 he coughed up $1.575 million for an apartment-sized Craftsman cottage just off the beach in Venice, Calif., and his previous home in Brentwood, an eclectically luxurious home he bought from Shabby Chic founder Rachel Ashwell in 2003 for $3 million, is now for sale at $6.295 million after it first popped earlier this year at $6.995 million .
Listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
