Christopher Edward Nolan CBE (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his
Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. He has received
many accolades and
his films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide, ranking him among the
highest-grossing directors. In 2015, he was listed as one of the
100 most influential people in the world by
Time, and in 2024, he was honoured with the
British Film Institute Fellowship.
Nolan developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. After studying
English literature at
University College London, he made several short films before his feature film debut with
Following (1998). Nolan gained international recognition with his second film,
Memento (2000), for which he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He transitioned from independent to studio filmmaking with
Insomnia (2002), and found further critical and commercial success with
The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012),
The Prestige (2006) and
Inception (2010); the last of these earned Nolan two Oscar nominations—
Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. This was followed by
Interstellar (2014),
Dunkirk (2017) and
Tenet (2020). For the war drama
Dunkirk, he earned two Academy Award nominations, including his first for
Best Director. Parting ways with longtime distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures, Nolan signed with
Universal Pictures for the biopic
Oppenheimer (2023), which won him a
Golden Globe Award and a
BAFTA Award for Best Direction.
Nolan's work regularly features in the listings of best films of their respective decades. Infused with a
metaphysical outlook, his films thematise
epistemology,
existentialism, ethics, the construction of time, and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity. They feature
mathematically-inspired images and concepts, unconventional
narrative structures,
practical special effects, experimental soundscapes,
large-format film photography, and
materialistic perspectives. He has co-written several of his films with his brother,
Jonathan, and runs the production company
Syncopy Inc. with his wife,
Emma Thomas.
