James Ward Byrkit (also known as James Byrkit or Jim Byrkit) is an American film director, writer, and actor. He is best known for directing the science fiction thriller Coherence and co-writing the script for Rango, one of his many collaborations with Gore Verbinski. For Rango, Byrkit starred as several characters, most notably Waffles, a horned lizard. Byrkit also was the conceptual artist on the first three films of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and designed some of the most iconic sequences of the series. Byrkit also directed the short film Tales of the Code: Wedlocked (2011), which serves as a prequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
