Taika Waititi

Actor, Producer, Writer

Birthdate: August 16, 1975 (50 Years Old)

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).

Personal Life
Movies
Facts

Personal life

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”.

Known For

Klara and the Sun

Director (2026)

2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation

(2026)

Next Goal Wins

Director (2023)

Thor: Love and Thunder

Director (2022)

The Mandalorian

IG-11 (2019)

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).

Oscar

Oscar

Academy Awards, USA

Oscar

Oscar

Academy Awards, USA

Oscar

Oscar

Academy Awards, USA

Taika Waititi Movies

Actor

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Previous (11)

2023 |
Next Goal Wins
Next Goal Wins
2023
Comedy, Drama, Sport
The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.
asAmerican Samoan Priest
2022 |
Lightyear
Lightyear
2022
Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
While spending years attempting to return home, marooned Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of ruthless robots commanded by Zurg who are attempting to steal the fuel source of his ship.
More Info
asMo Morrison
2022 |
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder
2022
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
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.
More Info
asKorg
2021 |
Free Guy
Free Guy
2021
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
When Guy, a bank teller, learns that he is a non-player character in a bloodthirsty, open-world video game, he goes on to become the hero of the story and takes the responsibility of saving the world.
More Info
asAntwan
2019 |
Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Comedy, Drama, War
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.
More Info
asAdolf
2019 |
The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian
2019
Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
The travels of a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.
asIG-11
2017 |
Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok
2017
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
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.
More Info
asKorg
2016 |
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
2016
Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush.
asMinister
-- |
Green Lanternas Tom Kalmaku
-- |
as Self - Host
-- |
as Self - Host

Director

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Previous (3)

2023 |
Next Goal Wins
Next Goal Wins
2023
Comedy, Drama, Sport
The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.
2022 |
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder
2022
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
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.
More Info
2019 |
Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Comedy, Drama, War
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.
More Info

Producer

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Previous (1)

2019 |
Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Comedy, Drama, War
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.
More Info

Writer

Collapse

Previous (3)

2023 |
Next Goal Wins
Next Goal Wins
2023
Comedy, Drama, Sport
The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.
2022 |
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder
2022
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
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.
More Info
2019 |
Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit
2019
Comedy, Drama, War
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.
More Info

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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