Eli Roth
Birthdate: Apr 18, 1972
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Eli Roth (birthname: Eli Raphael Roth) is one of the leading voices in American horror filmmaking, known for his taste in extreme situations and ultra-violent staging. Roth’s feature debut as director/writer/producer was the horror comedy, Cabin Fever (2002), with Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, and Giuseppe Andrews, grossing a potent $30.6 million (on a $1.5 million budget) that triggered interest in sequels—including the Ti West-directed Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009, which Roth handed over to West as his project), the Kaare Andrews-directed prequel Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014), and a remake of the same title based on Roth’s original screenplay (with Roth executive producing) and directed by Travis Zariwny.
Roth’s second and third horror movies as director/writer/producer were the Lionsgate and Screen Gems-distributed Hostel (2005), with Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson, and its immediate sequel, Hostel: Part II (2007), with Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, and Bijou Phillips, and earning a combined $117.6 million worldwide gross.
Eli Roth then took a break from feature directing as writer and producer on Aftershock (2012), in which he starred under co-writer Nicolás López’s direction, and on The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), directed, co-written and co-starring Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA (who also co-wrote the music), with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, and Dave Bautista, and which earned $20.5 million globally. Roth was director, co-writer (with Guillermo Amoedo), and producer (with López, among others) of the cannibal thriller, The Green Inferno (2013), with Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, and Sky Ferreira, which grossed $13 million worldwide after premiering at the Toronto film festival.
Director/writer Roth once again collaborated with López (who was co-writer, along with Amoedo, and also a producer) on the thriller, Knock Knock (2015), starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, and Aaron Burns, grossing $6.3 million in a Lionsgate release after premiering at the Sundance film festival. Roth was director only of the long-in-gestation remake of the 1974 movie of the same title, Death Wish (2018), starring Bruce Willis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris, and Kimberly Elise, and which took in a global box office of $49.6 million via distributors MGM and Annapurna International.
Eli Roth directed his first studio-produced fantasy movie, Universal Pictures’ $42-million-budgeted The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), starring Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan, and grossing a solid $131.5 million worldwide. Roth continued his break from the horror genre on which he made his name as director of the Discovery+ non-fiction movie, Fin (2021), executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and documenting scientists tracking a shark extinction happening worldwide.
Roth returned to horror movies as director, story writer, and a producer of the slasher movie, Thanksgiving (2023), building from a “trailer” that Roth made for the paired Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double-bill, Grindhouse (2007) and co-starring Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, and Gina Gershon, and earning a robust global return of $46 million, spawning plans for a sequel, Thanksgiving 2 (date to be announced), directed by Roth and co-written by Roth and Jeff Rendell.
Eli Roth is the director, story writer, and producer of the sci-fi comedy, Borderlands (2024), based on Gearbox Software’s video game series, marking Roth’s second movie with Black, Blanchett, and Gershon, and co-starring Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and which was released by Lionsgate. Roth has been a producer-only on numerous movies, including 2001 Maniacs (2005), The Last Exorcism (2010), The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), Clown (2014), The Stranger (2014), Haunt (2019), and a co-producer credit on Baywatch (2017), which he had developed for a year as an absurd comedy before the project was put on pause by Paramount Pictures.
Unusual among his filmmaking colleagues, Roth also has several acting credits—beyond small or cameo roles in several of his movies (Cabin Fever, 2001 Maniacs, Hostel Parts I and II, The Man with the Iron Fists, and The House with a Clock in Its Walls)—in Terror Firmer (1999), Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000), Tales from the Crapper (2004), Piranha 3D (2010), and Rock of Ages (2012), as well as roles in two Quentin Tarantino movies, Death Proof (2007) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), and an uncredited role in Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006).
Personal Details
Eli Roth was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts by parents Sheldon (Harvard Medical School clinical professor and psychiatrist/psychoanalyst) and Cora Roth (painter). Roth has one older brother, Adam Roth, and one younger brother, Gabriel Roth. Roth and his brothers made more than 100 short films together. Roth attended and graduated from Newton South High School, and then attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in cinema. Roth was married to actor Lorenza Izzo from 2014 to 2019 when the couple divorced; the couple has no children. In 2023, Roth told the magazine Men’s Health that he had remarried, to an Italian woman. Roth’s height is 6’. Roth’s estimated net worth is $20 million.
Awards
Winner, Filmmaker’s Showcase Award, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards (2004); Winner, Horror Hall of Fame, Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (2006); Nominee, Best First Feature, Independent Spirit Awards (2011); Winner, Best Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2010).
Actor
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Independent Spirit Award
Film Independent Spirit Awards
Filmography
director
Previous (4)
- 2024 | Borderlands
Borderlands
Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.
- 2023 | Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the infamous holiday.
- 2018 | The House with a Clock in Its Walls
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
A young orphan named Lewis Barnavelt aids his magical uncle in locating a clock with the power to bring about the end of the world.
- 2018 | Death Wish
Death Wish
Dr. Paul Kersey is an experienced trauma surgeon, a man who has spent his life saving lives. After an attack on his family, Paul embarks on his own mission for justice.
actor
Previous (32)
- 2022 | Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story
- 2021 | Fin
- 2021 | Don’t Look UpasBéla Olt
Don’t Look Up
The story of two low-level astronomers, who must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet earth.
- 2021 | Death Rider in the House of Vampires
Death Rider in the House of Vampires
In the Wild West, the mysterious Death Rider enters a dangerous Vampire Sanctuary where the price of admission is one female virgin.
- 2020 | Clownpocalypse
- 2019 | 10-31
- 2019 | Haunt
- 2019 | QT8: The First EightasSelf
QT8: The First Eight
A documentary that focuses on the first 21 years of Quentin Tarantino's career and includes interviews with his frequent collaborators.
- 2019 | Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah.
- 2018 | Aleister Arcane
- 2017 |
- 2016 | Cabin Fever
- 2015 | Knock Knock
- 2015 | The River at Night
- 2014 | Clown
- 2014 | Lake Mead
- 2014 | The Stranger
- 2013 | Invasion
- 2013 | The Green Inferno
- 2013 | The Sacrament
- 2012 | Aftershockas Gringo
- 2012 | The Funhouse 3D
- 2012 | The Man with the Iron Fists
- 2012 | Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages
A small-town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.
- 2011 | Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
- 2009 | Inglourious Basterdsas Sgt. Donny Donowitz
- 2009 | Inglourious BasterdsasSgt. Donny Donowitz
Inglourious Basterds
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
- 2007 | Grindhouse
- 2007 | Hostel: Part II
- 2005 | 2001 Maniacs
- 2005 | Hostelas Director
- 2002 | Cabin Fever
writer
Previous (1)
- 2021 | Endangered Species
Endangered Species
A wealthy American family who travel to the vast African wilderness of Kenya hoping for a dream vacation filled with excitement, bonding and a chance to fix the growing rifts within their family. But when their safari vehicle is attacked by a rhino protecting her calf, the family is left stranded miles from help and their dream vacation turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival in a world where they are the bottom of the food chain.
producer
Previous (2)
- 2020 | Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi
Daniel experiences a spiritual transformation in a detention center. Although his criminal record prevents him from applying to the seminary, he has no intention of giving up his dream and decides to minister a small-town parish.
- 2014 | The Other Woman
The Other Woman
After discovering her boyfriend is married, Carly soon meets the wife he's been betraying. And when yet another love affair is discovered, all three women team up to plot revenge on the three-timing S.O.B.
Some Facts About Eli Roth
Animal Rights Supporter: Eli Roth is a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), filming and acting in a PSA that he made for the organization, drawing a link between violence toward humans and animals. Roth has also commented that he can’t eat pork or bacon because he has a pet pig.
Haunted House: Roth created a haunted house attraction, Eli Roth’s Goretorium, in Las Vegas in 2012, though it closed the next year through bankruptcy.
Curator: Eli Roth curated an exhibit, “Can’t Look Away,” for the Museum of Pop Culture, on the history of horror movies which was part of a multi-generational survey including directors Roger Corman and John Landis.
Working with Quentin: Roth was cast in his first substantial acting role as Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz by Quentin Tarantino for his WWII black comedy, Inglourious Basterds, for which Roth commented that it was “like attending a directing master class.”
