Quentin Tarantino, American director, producer, screenwriter and actor
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, film critic and author. His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, dark humor, stylized violence, extended dialogue, pervasive use of profanity, ensemble casts, references to popular culture, alternate history, and neo-noir.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino grew up in Los Angeles. He began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, a crime thriller in part funded by the sale of his screenplay True Romance (1993); Empire hailed Reservoir Dogs as the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time". His second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a crime comedy, was a major success among critics and audiences and won numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He wrote the screenplay for From Dusk till Dawn (1996), in which he also starred, while Tarantino's third film, Jackie Brown (1997), paid homage to blaxploitation films.
In 2003, Tarantino delivered Kill Bill: Volume 1, stylized in cinematic traditions of kung fu films and Japanese martial arts, the animation sequences in the film were inspired from Aalavandhan; Volume 2 followed in 2004. Tarantino then directed the exploitation slasher Death Proof (2007), part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez released in the custom of 1970s grindhouse, under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds (2009) told an alternate history and explored subgenres of war films; it was followed by Django Unchained (2012), a Spaghetti Western, which won him his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Tarantino's eighth film, The Hateful Eight (2015), was a long-form revisionist Western thriller with a roadshow release, while his most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), was a comedy drama which explored the transition of Old Hollywood to New Hollywood. He published his debut novel, a novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in 2021.
Tarantino's films have garnered critical and commercial success, as well as a cult following. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and the Palme d'Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and five Grammys. In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation"; Tarantino has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.Tarantino's works have been subject to controversy, including his depictions of violence and frequent inclusion of racial slurs, and alleged negligence in his handling of stunt scenes in Kill Bill: Volume 2.