Biography of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Edward Nolan was born in London, England, on July 30th, 1970, and is not only one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of his generation, but also one of the highest-grossing directors of all time. Since his directorial debut with the British neo-crime drama Following in 1998, Nolan's 10 films have collectively grossed over $4.7 billion worldwide and garnered a total of 26 Oscar nominations, including 7 wins.

Nolan's passion for filmmaking began at age 7 when he borrowed his father's Super 8 camera to shoot rudimentary films with his toy action figures. He has stated in interviews that he knew he wanted to make films professionally from the time he was 11 years old. He was heavily influenced by Star Wars, on which he based a stop-motion homage called Space Wars in 1978, even using real NASA footage of rocket launches provided by his uncle, who helped build guidance systems for the Apollo rockets. He would later take inspiration from these early interactions with his uncle when tackling the immense complexity of his full-length space film Interstellar.

Nolan was educated first at Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire, and later at University College London, which he chose primarily for its filmmaking resources and at which he was president of the Union's Film Society. He made three independent films during his time at UCL, one of which, called Larceny (1995), was screened at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is still considered one of the best shorts ever made at the university. During this time, Nolan also met and began dating fellow student Emma Thomas, herself now a successful film producer. The couple married in 1997, and in 2001 founded the production company Syncopy Inc., which they now co-run and under which they have released many of Nolan's most successful films.

Nolan's most recent movie, Dunkirk (2017), was considered by many to be his most daring and ambitious production yet. It garnered nearly universal praise from critics and audiences for its suspenseful narrative, strong screenplay and direction, dramatic musical score, and cinematography. With a worldwide intake of $525 million, it is now the highest-grossing World War II film of all time, and is considered by many to be Nolan's best work. His other films include Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar.

Nolan currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and four children. While he keeps his personal life very private, journalists who have interviewed him describe him as straight-forward and pleasant, "the picture of Zen-like calm, speaking softly and deliberately about his work."