Paul Thomas Anderson
Birthdate: Jun 26, 1970
Birthplace: Studio City, California, USA
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the rare American filmmakers of his generation who has created personally driven and conceived movies outside of genre categories and on a large scale within the studio system, building his status as an artist whose every new release is considered an event. He is the only filmmaker to have won the Silver and Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival), Silver Lion (Venice Film Festival), the Best Director Palme d’Or (Cannes Film Festival), and a three-time winner of FIPRESCI’s (the International Federation of Film Critics) Grand Prix Film of the Year.
Anderson’s debut feature revealed the talent to come with the engaging Vegas-set crime thriller, Hard Eight (1996), based on his 1993 short film, Cigarettes & Coffee, co-starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and in competition at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard selection before a release by Samuel Goldwyn Company.
Anderson’s breakthrough feature as director/writer/producer was his second movie, the dazzling Valley-set comedy-drama, Boogie Nights (1997), an expansion of his 1988 mockumentary short film, The Dirk Diggler Story, starring Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, Reilly, William H. Macy and Heather Graham, launching at the Toronto Film Festival and released to a robust $43 million return by New Line Cinema after earning three Oscar nominations, including Anderson’s first for Best Original Screenplay.
Anderson continued his exploration of characters in his native San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles as director/writer/producer of the wild, multi-character drama, Magnolia (1999), with the ensemble of Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise (Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor), Melinda Dillon, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Jay, Macy, Alfred Molina, Moore, Reilly, Jason Robards, Melora Walters, premiering at the Berlin Film Festival (where it won the Golden Bear Best Film prize) and receiving three Oscar nominations (including a second Best Original Screenplay nod for Anderson) and grossing $48.5 million for New Line Cinema.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s first movie backed by a studio (Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing) was his third consecutive movie set in the Valley, the loopy romantic comedy-drama, Punch-Drunk Love (2002), starring Adam Sandler in a career-altering role, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman, launching in competition in the main selection at the Cannes Film Festival (where Anderson won the Best Director Palme) and grossing $24.7 million worldwide.
Anderson made a jump out of the Valley and contemporary settings with his ambitious, brilliant and first novel-to-screen adaptation about the California oil boom, There Will Be Blood (2007), based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel, Oil!, starring Daniel Day-Lewis (who won the Best Actor Oscar), Paul Dano, Kevin O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds and Dillon Freasier, premiering at the Fantastic Fest, winning two of seven nominated Oscars (including Anderson’s first Best Picture nod), grossing over $76 million for lead producers-distributors Paramount Vantage (U.S.)/Miramax Films (international).
Anderson began his multi-film exploration of the novels of Thomas Pynchon (V. from 1963) with his original Scientology-inspired drama as director/writer/producer, The Master (2012), also inspired by John Huston’s 1946 WWII documentary, Let There Be Light, and John Steinbeck’s life story, co-starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, with Laura Dern, Rami Malek, Jesse Plemons and Kevin J. O’Connor, and which was filmed and released in 70mm, launching at the Venice Film Festival (where it won the Silver Lion Best Director prize and a shared Volpi Cup Best Actor prize for Phoenix and Hoffman) and three acting Oscar nomination (including for Adams), grossing $28.3 million for distributor The Weinstein Company.
Anderson cast Phoenix once again in the lead and more literally adapted a Pynchon novel with the lighter neo-noir stoner comedy, Inherent Vice (2014), co-starring Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Martin Short, Jena Malone and Joanna Newsom, launching in the New York Film Festival’s Main Slate and earning two Oscar nominations (including Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson) and delivering a $15 million return for distributor Warner Bros.
Paul Thomas Anderson was director/writer/producer of his first film shot in Europe and his second starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a 1950s-era haute couture designer, the elegant and stirring Phantom Thread (2017), co-starring Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Camilla Rutherford and Gina McKee, and receiving six Oscar nominations including two for Anderson (Best Picture, Best Director) and one win (Best Costume Design) and earning nearly $49 million worldwide for distributors Focus Features (U.S.)/Universal Pictures (international).
Anderson as director/writer/producer/co-cinematographer returned to his Valley origins—though set in 1973, when he was actually only three years old--for the scintillating coming-of-age comedy drama, Licorice Pizza (2021), starring Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper and Benny Safdie, resulting in three Oscar nominations for Anderson (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay), with lead producer MGM and Focus Features, and a $33.3 million box officer return for United Artists Releasing (U.S.)/Universal Pictures (international).
Anderson returned as director/writer/producer/co-cinematographer to the world of Thomas Pynchon—albeit quite loosely—for the sprawling action thriller, One Battle After Another (2025), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, filmed in the now-rare 35mm format of VistaVision, produced by Ghoulardi Film Company and released wide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Anderson has also directed a non-fiction film, Junun (2015), chronicling the making of the album of the same name by Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express, and Anderson has also directed 25 music videos (for artists ranging from Michael Penn, Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann to Radiohead and Haim) as well as seven short films from 1988 to 2019 (about the Thom Yorke album, Anima).
Personal life
Paul Thomas Anderson was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City by parents Edwina and Ernie Anderson (actor and the voice of ABC). Anderson has three siblings and five older half-siblings from his father’s first marriage. Anderson attended The Buckley School, John Thomas Dye School, Campbell Hall School, Cushing Academy, and Montclair College Preparatory School, where he made his first short film. Anderson attended Santa Monica College, then briefly attended Emerson College (where David Foster Wallace was his fiction teacher) and even more briefly participated in the film school at New York University. Anderson was in a relationship with singer-songwriter Fiona Apple from 1997 to 2002. Anderson has been in a relationship with actor/comedian Maya Rudolph since 2001; the couple has four children and lives in the San Fernando Valley. Anderson’s height is 5’ 10½ ”. Anderson’s estimated net worth is $70 million.
Known For
Paul Thomas Anderson Movies
director
Previous (2)
- 2025 |
One Battle After Another
When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue one of their own's daughter.
- 2017 |
Phantom Thread
Set in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.
actor
Previous (11)
cinematographer
Previous (1)
- 2021 |
Licorice Pizza
The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
Facts About Paul Thomas Anderson
Father: Paul Thomas Anderson’s father Ernie, hosted a late-night horror show in Cleveland under the showbiz guise of “Ghoulardi.” Anderson then took the name for his production company, Ghoulardi Film Company.
Lifestyle: Anderson is a vegan.
Film Student, Briefly: Paul Thomas Anderson attended the film school at New York University for a total of two days, quickly determining that the teaching was not for him, that it turned filmmaking “into homework or a chore.”
Faithful Collaborator: Anderson has worked with an unusually high number of frequent collaborators, including: composer Jon Brion (three films), costume designer Mark Bridges (nine), cinematographer Robert Elswit (six), composer Jonny Greenwood (six), actor Luis Guzman (three), actor Philip Baker Hall (three), actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (five), editor Leslie Jones (three), casting director Cassandra Kulukundis (nine), producer Daniel Lupi (nine), actor John C. Reilly (four), producer JoAnne Sellar (eight), editor Dylan Tichenor (five), actor Melora Walters (four).
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