Filmmakers
by StevieJalapenoCracka | created - 13 Feb 2015 | updated - 1 month ago | Public1. Gloria Rolando
Director | The Eyes of the Rainbow
Gloria Rolando was born on April 4, 1953 in Havana, Cuba. She is a director and writer, known for The Eyes of the Rainbow (1997), Los marqueses de Atarés (2003) and Oggun: An Eternal Presence (1992).
2. Robert Rodriguez
Producer | El mariachi
Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...
3. Quentin Tarantino
Writer | Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of...
4. Benh Zeitlin
Director | Beasts of the Southern Wild
Born in New York City and raised in Sunnyside, Queens and then Westchester County, Benh Zeitlin began his career as a film-maker at the tender age of 6 years when he and a friend made a Batman movie. He continued making films as a child before attending Wesleyan University, where he majored in film...
5. Baz Luhrmann
Writer | Moulin Rouge!
Baz Luhrmann is an Australian writer, director and producer with projects spanning film, television, opera, theater, music and recording industries. He is regarded by many as a contemporary example of an auteur for his distinctly recognizable style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, ...
6. Peter Jackson
Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...
7. Guillermo del Toro
Writer | El laberinto del fauno
Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his ...
8. Guy Ritchie
Director | Sherlock Holmes
Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...
9. Tim Burton
Producer | Edward Scissorhands
Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...
10. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...
11. Ridley Scott
Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...
12. Tony Scott
Producer | Domino
Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...
13. John Woo
Director | Ying hung boon sik
Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...
14. Jackie Chan
Actor | Ngo si seoi
Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.
Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...
15. Alex Garland
Writer | Ex Machina
Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).
Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).
He is ...
16. J.J. Abrams
Producer | Lost
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he and Jill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which became Taking Care of Business (1990)....
17. Ang Lee
Director | Xi yan
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
18. Stephen Chow
Actor | Kung fu
Stephen Chow was the only boy of his family, and has grown up as a Bruce Lee fan and a martial arts addict. His career started on TV, where he presented a children show ( "430 Space Shuttle" (1983)) and started becoming popular. He got some supporting roles, after that, and won the Taiwanese Golden...
19. RZA
Soundtrack | The Man with the Iron Fists
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs better known by his stage name the RZA, is an American rapper, actor, filmmaker, and record producer. He is the DE factor leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having produced most albums for the group and its respective members. He is a cousin of two other original ...
20. Antoine Fuqua
Producer | The Magnificent Seven
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director, known for his work in the film Training Day as well as The Replacement Killers, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn's Finest, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer.
He has directed music videos for such artists as Arrested Development, Prince, ...
21. Dave Chappelle
Writer | Chappelle's Show
Dave Chappelle's career started while he was in high school at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC where he studied theatre arts. At the age of 14, he began performing stand-up comedy in nightclubs. Shortly after graduation, he moved to New York City where he quickly established ...
22. Kevin Smith
Producer | Clerks
Kevin Patrick Smith was born in Red Bank but grew up in Highlands, New Jersey, the son of Grace (Schultz) and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He is very proud of his native state; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. Kevin is of mostly German, with some Irish and English, ancestry.
His ...
23. Michael Crichton
Writer | Jurassic Park
Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he ...
24. Michael Mann
Producer | The Insider
As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...
25. Neil Gaiman
Writer | Good Omens
Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films. He is best known for the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.
As a child and a teenager, Gaiman read the works of C. S. ...
26. Robert A. Halmi
Producer | Lonesome Dove
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Robert Halmi is a producer of more than 400 film and television projects, the founder of the Hallmark Channel, and the visionary behind Great Point Studios, a media-focused company specializing in film and television infrastructure.
Halmi has been the Chief Executive ...
27. Robert Halmi Sr.
Producer | Merlin
Robert Halmi Sr. was born on January 22, 1924 in Budapest, Hungary. He was a producer and director, known for Merlin (1998), Tin Man (2007) and Gulliver's Travels (1996). He was married to Caroline. He died on July 30, 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.
28. Ray Harryhausen
Actor | Spies Like Us
When it comes to motion-picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic: Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion-picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.
...
29. James Cameron
Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...
30. Bruce Campbell
Actor | Bubba Ho-Tep
In 1979 with his Detroit friends, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell raised $350,000 for a low-budget film, The Evil Dead (1981), in which he starred and co-executive produced. Completed piecemeal over four years, the film first gained notoriety in England where it became the best-selling ...
31. Michael Bay
Producer | Armageddon
A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won...
32. Ron Howard
Producer | Arrested Development
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.
Howard ...
33. Spike Lee
Director | Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...
34. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
35. George Lucas
Writer | Star Wars
George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...
36. Timur Bekmambetov
Director | Nochnoy dozor
Timur Bekmambetov is a Kazakh-Russian film director known for vampire franchise Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006).
He was born Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov on June 25, 1961, in Guryev, Soviet Union (now Atyrau, Kazakhstan). His father, Nuruakhit Bekmambetov, is a manager at Guryev Energy ...
37. Neill Blomkamp
Director | District 9
Neill Blomkamp is a South African-Canadian film director and screenwriter who is known for the science fiction films District 9, Elysium and Chappie. He also directed the supernatural horror film Demonic and the 2007 short film Halo: Landfall, based on the Microsoft science fiction video game ...
38. Christopher Nolan
Writer | Tenet
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...
39. Luc Besson
Writer | Le Cinquième Élément
Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...
40. Edward Zwick
Producer | Thirtysomething
Zwick moves deftly between the roles of writer, director and producer. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the 1989 critically acclaimed Civil War drama, Glory. He received his second Golden Globe nomination as a director for Legends of the Fall. Zwick received an Academy Award...
41. Chris Prynoski
Producer | Motorcity
Chris Prynoski was born on November 1, 1971 in New Jersey, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Motorcity (2012), Her (2013) and Freddy Got Fingered (2001).
42. Anthony Bourdain
Producer | Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Anthony Bourdain was born in New York City, to Gladys (Sacksman), an NYT staff editor, and Pierre Bourdain, a Columbia Records executive. He attended The Englewood School for Boys in New Jersey and Vassar College (for two years), and was a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America. He began his...
43. Dianne Greenwood
Actress | The Man in the High Castle
Dianne Greenwood is a born actor who has been acting her entire life in one way or another. Throughout school, she could be seen in every play or production from kindergarten to grade 12, including popular titles such as "Cinderella," also played in sleeping beauty
She also produced few music videos...
44. Tatyana Ali
Actress | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Tatyana Marisol Ali was born on January 24, 1979, in North Bellmore, New York, to Sonia, a nurse from Panama, and Sheriff Ali, a retired police officer from Trinidad. At the age of four, she started singing and got a taste of fame when she begged her mother to take her to an audition for Sesame ...
45. Roman Polanski
Director | Chinatown
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.
His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...
46. Mark Dacascos
Actor | Le pacte des loups
Mark Dacascos is an actor, director, martial artist, and television personality. Whether seen on the big screen or small, playing the good guy or the bad, Mark has been making audience stand up and take notice for many years.
This May, Mark will be seen in highly anticipated film John Wick: Chapter ...
47. Yayan Ruhian
Actor | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Yayan Ruhian was born in Tasikmalaya (West Java) on October 19, 1968. He found his passion in Pencak Silat and other martial arts, becoming a professional martial arts instructor. Ruhian is also known as an instructor of an inner breathing technique designed to condition of the body to withstand ...
48. Tony Jaa
Actor | Ong-bak 3
Japanom Yeerum was born on February 5, 1976, in the northeastern province of Surin, Thailand. His parents were elephant herders. Jaa watched martial arts films as a young kid and began to emulate some of his idols, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Jet Li. Jaa studied martial arts at the local ...
49. Cecep Arif Rahman
Actor | John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
He is a respected Pencak Silat trainer who toured Europe and was one of the Pencak Silat fighters documented by European Pencak Silat website Saudara Kaum (France). He has a proficiency in the school of Silat Cimande and Panglipur Garut. On an interview with the Indonesian media, he said that he is...
50. Bruce Lee
Actor | Jing wu men
Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and ...
51. Shini Somara
Self | Crash Course: Physics
52. Roma Agrawal
Self | World's Greatest Palaces
She was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to Engineering. She is the Associate Director for AECOM.
53. Rihanna
Actress | Battleship
Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988 in Bridgetown, St. Michael, Barbados to Monica Braithwaite, an accountant & Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Her mother is Afro-Guyanese and her father is of Afro-Barbadian and British Isles ancestry. Rihanna lived the life of a normal ...
54. Josh Gates
Producer | Hacking the System
Originally from the small town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Josh is graduate of Boston's Tufts University, from which he holds degrees in archaeology and drama. His work and travels have taken him to more than 50 countries around the world.
An avid SCUBA diver, Josh has assisted in ...
55. Denis Villeneuve
Director | Dune
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...
56. D.B. Weiss
Producer | Game of Thrones
D.B. Weiss was born on April 23, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), 3 Body Problem (2024) and Metal Lords (2022). He is married to Andrea Troyer.
57. Richard Rawlings
Producer | Welcome to Happiness
Richard Rawlings was born on March 30, 1969 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Welcome to Happiness (2015), Fast n' Loud (2012) and Shop Class (2020). He was previously married to Suzanne Marie Mergele and Karen K. Grames.
58. Danny Koker
Writer | Counting Cars
Danny Koker was born on January 5, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Counting Cars (2012), Saturday Fright at the Movies (1990) and Counting Cars: After Hours (2013).
59. Janene Carleton
Stunts | Avengers: Endgame
Janene is the youngest of 3 children, born and raised in Kelowna, Canada. Growing up she was always a well-rounded athlete having participated in a wide range of sports & dance. But her main focus was competitive horseback riding where she competed at a national level in show jumping and three day ...
60. Travis Taylor
Producer | Ancient Aliens
Travis Taylor is known for Ancient Aliens (2009), Beyond Skinwalker Ranch (2023) and The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020).
61. Jack Pope
Director | Meru the Succubus
Jack Pope is a member on the board of directors for Flixzilla, as well as the Film Advisory Board of Directors for Tribeca Film Festival, the board of directors of American Cinematheque, and the advisory board of Film Independent. Mr. Pope is also an American Film Institute trustee, an Executive ...
62. Misty Rosas
Self | Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Misty Rosas is a dynamic and incredibly versatile artist. She is best known for her work on, The Mandalorian. She is the Performance Artist for the character, "Kuiil" in Season One (2019) and "Frog Lady" in Season Two (2020). Her performance in Season 2 led to her 2021 Hollywood Critics Association...
63. Emily Zarka
Writer | Channel Zed
Emily Zarka is known for Channel Zed (2020), Monstrum (2018) and Exhumed: A History of Zombies (2020).
64. Erin Ryder
Producer | MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge
Erin Ryder is an award-winning producer and director who has built a 20-year career in television, and film. She has produced and directed docuseries and live events for NBC, ESPN, Amazon, Youtube, and has sold series to Facebook Watch, National Geographic, Travel, and History Channel. Erin led ...
65. Jael De Pardo
Actress | Subway Cafe
Jael De Pardo was born on March 7, 1981 in Barranquilla Colombia. She is a producer and actress, known for Subway Cafe (2004), Scumbag (2017) and By Chance (2002).
66. Steven M. Greer
Actor | Adventures of a Hip Hop Alien Chaser
Steven M. Greer was born on October 20, 1955 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Adventures of a Hip Hop Alien Chaser, The Lost Century: And How to Reclaim It (2023) and Sirius (2013).
67. Richard Gabriel
Self | The Bible Rules
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