Christopher Nolan has been fascinated by filmmaking since childhood. He has proved to be one of the most exciting, innovative and successful filmmakers in the world with films such as Dunkirk, Insomnia, Interstellar and, of course, the famous Batman trilogy. Described as an auteur and postmodernist, his films have taken well over $4bn at the box office.
Christopher Nolan was born in London in 1970. A prodigious filmmaking talent from an early age, he has built a career on atmospheric films and is credited with breathing new life into the genre of intelligent action and war films, most particularly the Batman trilogy and Dunkirk.
He began making films in his childhood, using his father's Super 8 camera. Arriving at Haileybury in 1984, he went on to study English literature at University College London, where he began making 16mm films in the College Film Society (of which he became president).
Nolan has built his career with atmospheric films which draw upon the film noir canon. His first major film, Momento (2000), is now something of a cult classic among film fans; this, together with The Prestige (2006) received multiple Academy Award nominations. His work on Insomnia (2002) starring Al Pacino was particularly well-received.
Of course, it was with his work on the Batman films, adding a new darkness to the Gotham City guardian, which brought his work into a much broader view.
Batman Begins (2005) was launched to enormous critical success while The Dark Knight (2008) was seen by many as the finest superhero film ever made, winning two Oscars.
Building on this success, the third in the series,The Dark Knight Rises (2012), grossed over $1bn at the box office.
War epic Dunkirk - starring Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Kenneth Brannagh - was released in July 2017. It follows the story of the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk during World War Two.
Chris' other recent output has included the sci-fi epic Interstellar (2014) (grossing $640m and receiving an Oscar for best visual effects) and he continues to be in demand for his unique approach.
In 2015, he was appointed by the US Library of Congress to serve on the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) as Directors Guild of America (DGA) representative.