Taika Waititi

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).