Christopher Nolan is a writer, director, producer, editor, and actor famous for his complex narratives and unusual, intelligent approach to blockbuster film-making.

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan was born on July the 30, 1970, in London . With a British father and an American mother he had joint citizenship and spent his childhood moving between the two countries. His uncle is actor John Nolan and he has two brothers: Matt, who assisted him in his early movie-making efforts; and Jonathan Nolan, who himself went on to become a successful scriptwriter, often working together with Christopher.

Christopher Nolan loved film from when he was very young, particularly enjoying the Star Wars and Alien movies. These inspired him to start filming his own shorts on super-8, getting help in Chicago from his friend Roko Belic, who went on to become a successful director and producer. Even his early work was experimental. Books such as Graham Swift's Waterland triggered his interest in experimenting with the order of events in the stories he told, creating the disordered narratives which were to become his trademark. He studied English literature at University College London, and it was there that he made Tarantella, a surreal short which was screened by PBS and provided the first public demonstration of his talent.

While living in London , Nolan was the victim of a burglary. Finding himself obsessively curious about the unknown culprit, he began writing his first feature, Following, about a writer who follows strangers. Starring Jeremy Theobald, the film was shot on weekends over the course of a year with a total budget of just $6,000. It won several awards and helped him raise the money (some of it begged directly from festival audiences) to make Memento.

The story of an amnesiac desperately seeking to avenge his wife's murder, Memento, which starred Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, was not a great box-office success but soon became established as a cult classic, rated by users of the IMDB as the twenty fifth best film ever. It also won considerable critical acclaim, with numerous awards including the Special Jury Prize at the Deauville Film Festival, plus a Golden Globe nomination. In so doing, it firmly established Nolan as a man capable of working at the top of his profession.

Nolan's next project was a remake of Erik Skjoldbjærg's Norwegian murder mystery Insomnia. Relocated to Alaska , Nolan's version starred Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. He followed it up with what he described as the film he had always wanted to make, Batman Begins. With a host of stars including Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer, and Katie Holmes, the film was a massive success and also managed to be popular with Batman fans. It was largely on the strength of this that Nolan was given the opportunity to adapt Christopher Priest's book The Prestige, on which he worked with some of the same actors, joined by Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie. He is now preparing to direct a big screen version of cult British television series The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan as a man kidnapped and imprisoned in a mysterious village by authorities seeking information.

Nolan is married to producer and actress Emma Thomas, and they have three children.

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