Wan was born on 26 February 1977 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, and is of Chinese descent. Wan and his family moved to Perth, Western Australia when he was seven. He attended Lake Tuggeranong College in Canberra, before returning to Perth as an adult. Wan relocated from Perth to Melbourne, where he attended RMIT University; he graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Arts in Media in 1998.

Before his success in the mainstream film industry, Wan made his first feature-length film, Stygian, with Shannon Young, which won “Best Guerrilla Film” at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) in 2000.

Prior to 2003, Wan and his friend, screenwriter Leigh Whannell, had begun writing a script for a horror film, citing inspiration from their dreams and fears. Upon completing the script, Wan and Whannell had wanted to select an excerpt from their script, later to be known as Saw and film it to pitch their film to studios. With the help of Charlie Clouser, who had composed the score for the film and a few stand-in actors, Wan and Whannell shot the film with relatively no budget. Whannell also decided to star in the film.

In 2007, Wan directed two featured films. The first was the horror film Dead Silence, which was the result of advice from Wan and Whannell’s agent at the time; Wan and Whannell has since stated that the film was a negative experience for them. Dead Silence featured Australian actor Ryan Kwanten and is based on the premise of a legend, whereby the ghost of a ventriloquist, Mary Shaw, removes the tongue of any person who screams in its presence. Rather than a gore movie, Wan described the film as “a creepy doll movie. It’s in the spirit of those old Twilight Zone episodes or Hammer Horror Films. Very old-school.” The film grossed over $22 million against a production budget of $20 million. It received negative reviews from critics.

Having worked on his previous three films continuously, Wan told the male lifestyle website CraveOnline that he was ready for “a bit of time off just to chill… but at the same time I’m using this opportunity to write again.” In 2008, Wan directed a trailer for the survival horror video game Dead Space.

In 2009, a Whannel–Wan collaborative project, called X Ray, was announced and was described as a new “film noir/action project”, with producer Robbie Brenner also attached to the project; however, as of December 2012, no further developments were reported. It was also announced that an adaptation of Scott O. Brown’s graphic novel Nightfall was to be Wan’s next film after Death Sentence. The plot involves the events that take place after a criminal is sent to a Texas prison run by vampires. However, nothing materialized and Wan lost the rights to the film.

The release of Saw 3D was to signify the completion of the franchise. After the intended conclusion, Lionsgate, the franchise’s production company, ceased making Saw films, while waiting to hear a pitch that they thought made it worthwhile to resurrect the series. In August 2012, Lionsgate revealed intentions for an eighth Saw sequel, but it was still at a “tinkering” stage at the time of the disclosure. This eventually became Jigsaw (2017), which was conceived when writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, who had spent two years pursuing the opportunity to write a Saw entry, proposed their vision.

In 2012, Disney was reported to be developing a remake of The Rocketeer, and Wan was in talks about directing the film. However, no film ever came to fruition. Similarly, Wan’s negotiations to direct an adaption of the 1980s television series MacGyver film never materialized and he pulled out from directing due to scheduling conflicts Instead, a reboot television series titled MacGyver premiered in September 2016. Wan executive produced the series and directed the pilot episode. Wan was also at one point attached to the director role for a live action Robotech film for Sony, but was replaced by Andy Muschietti in July 2017.

Wan’s next film, The Conjuring (2013), centered on the real life exploits of husband and wife Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple that investigated paranormal events. The film focused on the couple’s most famous case second to the Amityville haunting, in which they investigated a witch’s curse on a Rhode Island family farm. In his second collaboration with the pair, Patrick Wilson starred in the film, with him and Vera Farmiga playing the husband and wife respectively. Filming commenced in North Carolina, United States, in late February 2012, and New Line Cinema, together with Warner Bros. Pictures, had initially slated the film for a release on 25 January 2013. A test screening of the film occurred in October 2012 at the New York Comic Con event, where it screened in the IGN Theater, and the audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive. At that stage, Wan had several more weeks before the film was completed. The film was released in July 2013, and was a critical and commercial success, grossing $319.5 million.

After work on The Conjuring was complete, Wan directed a sequel to 2010’s Insidious. The film was once again written by Wan’s longtime collaborator and close friend, Whannell, and the cast of the original film returned. Filming for the sequel commenced in January 2013, and the film was released on 13 September 2013. The budget for the film had been described as “shoestring” by one media outlet. Oren Peli, the creator of the Paranormal Activity franchise, returned as an executive producer. Film District distributed Insidious: Chapter 2. It received mixed reviews but grossed over $161 million worldwide against a budget of $5 million. Wan later admitted that he wasn’t as involved in the sequel, adding “it would be good to shepherd it and keep it more in track to the version I had when I made the first film so that it doesn’t detour too far” since he never intended to make a sequel initially.

In early 2013, Wan entered into negotiations with Universal Pictures to direct the seventh installment to the The Fast and the Furious action franchise after Justin Lin, who directed the previous four sequels, confirmed that he would not continue as director in January 2013. Wan was part of a directorial shortlist alongside Jeff Wadlow, Baltasar Kormákur and Harald Zwart. A final confirmation that Wan would direct was revealed in April 2013, with Lin approving. The film, Furious 7, was released in April 2015. It became the most commercially successful film in the franchise, grossing over $1.515 billion globally and received positive reviews.

Wan currently has multiple projects in the works, many of which have been in development for years. In June 2014, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Wan’s graphic novel Malignant Man. Wan was to develop the concept with a view to directing and producing the film. At the time of the announcement, comic book label BOOM! Studios was slated for a production role alongside co-producers Stephen Christy, Ross Richie and Adam Yoelin. Wan has stated that he will direct, co-produce and co-write the film with Ingrid Bisu.

On 7 August 2015, Wan signed-on to produce New Line Cinema’s Mortal Kombat reboot. Four years later, the South Australian Government’s budget included a huge boost to the South Australian Film Corporation, with the Mortal Kombat reboot, as the largest film production in the state’s history, set to be a key recipient.

Wan later completed a deal to direct The Conjuring 2 as part of a significant long-term deal with New Line Cinema. Head of New Line, Toby Emmerich, explained that Wan is the sole director that the studio signed a deal with, as New Line considers Wan to be “a class of one”. The film was released on June 10, 2016, to high critical acclaim and commercial success. That same month, Wan launched his own production company, Atomic Monster Productions, at New Line Cinema. With the company, he develops and produces budget films in the science fiction, horror, and comedy genres. Films produced by the label included The Conjuring 2 and Lights Out.

Wan later produced Demonic, a Dimension Films horror movie that was scheduled for a December 2014 release, alongside Lee Clay. Wan conceived the idea for the film, which was directed by Will Canon and features Maria Bello in the lead role. Max La Bella penned the script. The film was eventually released on VOD in August 2017.

In 2018, Wan directed the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman. The film grossed over $1.148 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing DCEU film as well as the highest-grossing film based on a DC Comics character, internationally, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises. In 2019, Wan developed a television series based on the character Swamp Thing, for the DC Universe streaming service.

In February 2018, Wan was confirmed to executive produce the animated adaptation of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo comic book series. The series will premiere on Netflix and will be a CGI animated show (titled Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles). The following month, it was announced that Wan will produce the film adaptation of the slasher novel There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins under his Atomic Monster label, alongside Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment for Netflix. Later, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Wan and producers Roy Lee and Larry Sanitsky were developing a film adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Tommyknockers and shopping the package to studios. Deadline later reported that Universal had won the bidding war and acquired the feature film package. Wan will produce the film adaptation under his Atomic Monster label, with an eye to direct.

in 2019, Wan signed on to direct the television adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer for Amazon Prime. This was followed by his attachment to a television series based on the Italian horror comics series Dylan Dog. In March 2020, Wan was announced to be working with Universal Pictures to produce a modern remake of Frankenstein.

On 22 June 2019, Wan became engaged to Romanian German actress Ingrid Bisu, making the announcement on his Instagram. They married in November 2019.