Taika Waititi
Birthdate: Aug 16, 1975
Birthplace: Wellington, New Zealand
A true multi-hyphenate in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Orson Welles, Taika Waititi (birthname: Taika David Cohen) is both a writer-producer-director whose portfolio has shifted from New Zealand independent films to major tentpole movies in the Star Wars and MCU franchises, including Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and a busy actor in live-action and animation, including Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story spinoff, Lightyear (2022), with Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, and Dale Soules.
As a gauge of Waititi’s incredible rate of activity, since 2016, he has directed five features, including the Oscar-winning World War II comedy, Jojo Rabbit (2019); has directed episodes in three different TV series, including Disney +’s The Mandalorian (2019); has produced or executive produced 11 features and TV series; has created three TV series; and has acted in 19 features and TV series.
After successful stints as a member of New Zealand comedy groups, Taika Waititi made a handful of award-winning short films, including the Oscar-nominated Two Cars, One Night (2003). He soon directed and co-wrote his first feature, the whimsical Eagle vs. Shark (2007), becoming a long-running programmer and audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival. Waititi had his first indie hit with Boy (2010), which took the buzz it gained at Sundance to become New Zealand’s highest-grossing (local) feature to date and festival prizes in Berlin, AFI Fest, Melbourne, and Sydney.
The next year, Waititi the actor jumped into Hollywood as a member of the cast of Green Lantern (2011), with Ryan Reynolds. Waititi blended his comedy roots with the vampire genre for his third writer-director feature (in which he also acted), What We Do in the Shadows (2013), which was so successful that it was spun off as an FX series under the same title in 2019. Waititi’s fourth Sundance world premiere, the light-hearted adventure movie, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), broke the New Zealand box-office record set by his previous Boy.
Taika Waititi’s Hollywood career jumped into hyperdrive in 2017 when he directed his first MCU movie, Thor: Ragnarok, with Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, and Idris Elba, earning a worldwide gross of over $854 million. As writer-director, he dramatically shifted gears for the World War II comedy-drama, spiked with his usual whimsy, Jojo Rabbit (2019), with Scarlett Johansson, Roman Griffin Davis, and Thomasin McKenzie, and which earned not only Waititi an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay but also a nomination for Best Picture. At the same time, Waititi entered the Star Wars universe and was attached as director and actor to Disney +’s/Lucasfilm’s hit streaming series, The Mandalorian (2019). This relationship has led to Waititi being set to direct a currently untitled Star Wars film, scheduled for a 2025 release.
Taika Waititi has been busily jumping between TV series and feature films since 2020 as a writer-director, producer, and actor. His acting assignments have included The Suicide Squad (2021), Free Guy (2021), The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021), as Blackbeard in the HBO Max comedy series, Our Flag Means Death (2022), and as part of the vocal cast of Disney Pixar’s Lightyear.
Waititi’s directing chores have been as wide-ranging as a DGA Award-winning commercial for Coca-Cola, episodes for Our Flag Means Death, and a slated pilot episode of the TV remake of Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (date to be announced), and the features Thor: Love and Thunder, Next Goal Wins (2022), with Elisabeth Moss, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, and Angus Sampson; the Disney-produced fantasy-horror movie, Tower of Terror (date to be announced); a live-action version of The Incal (date to be announced), based on the graphics novel by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean “Moebius” Giraud; a fourth Thor film for Marvel Studios (date to be announced); as well as an announced production of an English-language remake of the Manga cult hit, Akira (date to be announced).
Gallery
Personal Details
Born in the town of Raukokore in the Bay of Plenty area of the North Island of New Zealand, Taika Waititi was raised by his parents Taika and mother Robin (Cohen) Waititi. His mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish, English, and Scottish descent, and his father is a member of the Te Whānau-ā-Apanui (the family of Apanui) tribe, or iwi, of the Māori Nation.
His parents divorced when Waititi was five, and his mother raised him as he schooled, studying at Wellington-based Onslow College and earning a B.A. at Victoria University of Wellington. To honor his mother, Waititi used the name “Taika Cohen” for his writing and cinema work, and to honor his artist father, used the name “Taika Waititi” for his work in fine art. He later adopted that name for all of his creative work in all media. Waititi married Chelsea Winstanley in 2011; the couple separated in 2018. They have two children, Te Hinekāhu Waititi and Matewa Kiritapu Waititi. His height is 6’ ½”.
Awards
Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay, Academy Awards (2020); Two-time Nominee, Best Picture/Best Live Action Short Film, Academy Awards (2020, 2005); Nominee, Best Comedy Series, Emmy Awards (2020); Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay, BAFTA Awards (2020); Three-time Winner, Panorama (section) Short Film Award/Panorama (section) Special Jury Short Film Award/Best Film (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix), Berlin Film Festival (2004, 2005, 2010); Two-time Nominee, Best Director in Commercials/Best Feature Director, Directors Guild of America (2020, 2021); Winner, Best New Scripted Series, Independent Spirit Awards (2022); Winner, Best Compilation Soundtrack, Grammy Awards (2021); Winner, Best Live Action Short—Jury Award, Palm Springs International ShortFest (2005); Two-time Nominee, Best Producer Theatrical Motion Picture/Best Producer Episodic Comedy Television, Producers Guild of America (2020, 2021); Nominee, Best Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild (2020); Two-time Winner, People’s Choice Award, Toronto Film Festival (2014, 2019); Winner, Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild of America Awards (2020).
BAFTA Film Award
BAFTA Awards
Critics Choice Award
Critics Choice Awards
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (1)
Previous (17)
- 2023 | Next Goal WinsasAmerican Samoan Priest
Next Goal Wins
The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.
- 2022 |
- 2021 |
- 2020 | The Incal
- 2019 | Jojo RabbitasProducer(produced by, p.g.a.)
Jojo Rabbit
A young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose hero and imaginary friend is the country's dictator is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
- 2018 | Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Blissas Storsh
- 2016 | Hunt for the Wilderpeopleas Producer
- 2016 | We're Wolves
- 2015 | Akira
- 2015 | Tower of Terror
- 2014 | The Last Family
- 2014 | What We Do in the Shadowsas Producer(produced by)
- 2010 | Boyas Writer
- 2007 | Eagle vs Shark
- 2006 | Flash Gordon
- 2004 | Frodo Is Great... Who Is That?!!as Frodo Baggins
- 1999 | Scarfiesas Alex
director
Previous (2)
- 2022 | Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.
- 2017 | Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok
Imprisoned on the planet Sakaar, Thor must race against time to return to Asgard and stop Ragnarök, the destruction of his world, at the hands of the powerful and ruthless villain Hela.
Some Facts About Taika Waititi
Family Roots: Taika Waititi has described himself, somewhat jokingly, as a “Polynesian Jew,” noting that his complex family ancestry includes his mother Robin being Russian Jewish (though non-practicing), mixed with Irish and other Anglo strains, while his father is Maori “with a little bit of French Canadian.”
Mr. Kiwi: Waititi is the 2017 recipient of New Zealander of the Year, but was so busy that he couldn’t be present at the award ceremony.
Making History: Taika Waititi became the first person of indigenous ancestry to win a screenplay, Oscar.
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