Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan, an English film director, and producer, is one of the highest-grossing directors in Hollywood. He earned international recognition after he directed the American neo-noir psychological thriller film, 'Memento', which is known to be one of the best movies in Hollywood. 

Nolan has won a number of awards throughout his career, including the ‘Writers Guild of America Award’ for Best Original Screenplay for his film ‘Inception’ and three ‘Independent Spirit Awards’ for his film ‘Memento’.

In 1977, Nolan married Emma Thomas and has three sons, Rory Nolan, Magnus Nolan, and Oliver Nolan, and a daughter, Flora Nolan.

Early Life And Education Of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan was born Christopher Edward Nolan on 30th July 1970 in London, UK, under the birth sign cancer. He is British and belongs to mixed ethnicity. Nolan was born to English father, Brendan James Nolan and American mother, Christina Nolan.

His father was an advertising executive and his mother worked as a flight attendant & an English teacher. He also has two brothers, Jonathan Nolan and Matthew Francis Nolan.

Nolan went to Haileybury and Imperial Service College. He then studied English literature at University College London. During his college years, he worked in short films ‘Tarantella’ and ‘Larceny’. In 1997, Nolan produced another short film ‘Doodlebug’.

Christopher Nolan's Career

Christopher Nolan directed his first British neo-noir crime drama film, 'Following' in 1998. It is a story of a young man who follows strangers around the streets of London.

Though the movie was made on a small budget of $6,000, it received a huge popularity-acc u mulated a whopping $240,495 at the box office.

Nolan then directed the 2000 American neo-noir psychological thriller film, 'Memento'. The movie was a huge success and received two Oscar nominations.

In 2002, Nolan made another American psychological thriller film 'Insomnia', which also did well. It was about two homicide detectives investigating a murder.

After Nolan directed the 2005 superhero film 'Batman Begins', his career skyrocketed. The movie based on DC comics falls under the Dark Knight Trilogy consisting of two other movies, The Dark Knight, directed, co-produced, & co-written by Nolan that made over $1 billion and The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan co-wrote the screenplay along with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with American screenwriter, David S. Goyer.

Heath Ledger won the Oscar for best performance an Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Joker in The Dark Knight and Anne Hathaway won the Academy Award for a best-supporting actress for her role in The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight also won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. 

Nolan then directed the 2006 British-American mystery thriller film, 'The Prestige'. The movie featured Hollywood A-listers such as Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, and others. It is based on a novel of the same name by Christopher Priest.

Nolan then directed the film 'Inception' starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Marion Cotillard among others. The movie received a huge commercial success- it also won four Oscars.

Nolan then wrote, directed, and produced 'Interstellar', which was released in 2014. The film was a huge success and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. In 2015, Nolan directed a British short doc u mentary film, 'Quay'.

In 2017, his directorial movie, Dunkirk which was a huge hit grossed more than five times of its budget at the box office.

Christopher Nolan's Net Worth

Christopher Nolan's net worth is $180 million, he is known as one of the highest earning Hollywood directors of all time. Nolan has made 13 movies and his movies have made a collective  $5 billion worldwide at the box office.

Almost all of his movies have been huge successes at the box office. Here are a list of movies with their budget and total collection,

Movie	Budget (USD)	Box office	IMDB Rating	Cast Member
Following (1998)	$6 thousand	$240. 5 thousand	7.6	Kevin Bacon James Purefoy Shawn Ashmore Sam Underwood Jessica Stroup
Memento (2000)	$9 million	$39.7 million	8.5	Guy Pearce Carrie-Anne Moss Joe Pantoliano Mark Boone Junior Stephen Tobolowsky
Insomnia (2002)	$46 million	$113.7 million	7.2	Robin Williams Al Pacino Hilary Swank Martin Donovan Maura Tierney
Batman Begins (2005)	$150 million	$374.2 million	8.3	Christian Bale Katie Holmes Cillian Murphy Michael Caine Liam Neeson
The Prestige (2006)	$40 million	$109.6 million	8.5	Hugh Jackman Christian Bale Scarlett Johansson David Bowie Michael Caine
The Dark Knight (2008)	$185 million	$1.005 billion	9	Christian Bale Heath Ledger Gary Oldman Michael Caine Morgan Freeman
Inception (2010)	$160 million	$825.5 million	8.8	Leonardo DiCaprio Tom Hardy Ellen Page Joseph Gordon-Levitt Cillian Murphy
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)	$250 million	$1.085 billion	8.4	Tom Hardy Christian Bale Anne Hathaway Joseph Gordon-Levitt Gary Oldman
Interstellar (2014)	$165 million	$675.1 million	8.6	Matthew McConaughey Anne Hathaway Jessica Chastain Mackenzie Foy Michael Caine
Dunkirk (2017)	$100 million	$525.6 million	7.9	Harry Styles Tom Hardy Mark Rylance Cillian Murphy Kenneth Branagh

Christopher Nolan owns a luxurious villa in Los Angeles worth millions of dollars. He also has a collection of many branded cars including Audi, Land Rover, BMW, and Mercedes.

Christopher Nolan's Personal Life

Christopher Nolan is happily married to his longtime girlfriend, Emma Thomas. She is best known as the film producer for Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. The duo exchanged vows in 1997 in an intimate wedding ceremony.

The pair first met at University College London when Nolan was only 19-year-old. They share four children. Nolan rarely talks about his wife and kids in media as he prefers privacy regarding his personal life. Currently, Christopher Nolan resides in Los Angeles with his family. 

Because of his politeness and dedication towards his work, journalist Jeffrey Ressner described him as "the picture of Zen-like calm'' at the press conference of The Dark Knight Rises. 

Nolan is also known for his dressing sense. The New York Times Magazine describes his dressing style as,

Split the difference between the demands of an executive suite and a tundra.

Similarly, Empire magazine declared him, ”the best-dressed director since Hitchc* * k."

Nolan doesn't use mobile phones or an email address and when a reporter asked him about it, he replied, 

It's not that I'm a Luddite and don't like technology; I've just never been interested, When I moved to Los Angeles in 1997, nobody really had cell phones, and I just never went down that path.

Nolan reportedly bans mobile phones on the sets of his movies.

Many Hollywood celebrities appreciate his hard work and openly praise Nolan. Rupert Wyatt, Michael Mann, Damien Chazelle, Olivier Assayas, Steven Spielberg, Rain Johnson are some the stars who have commended and admired his works.

In 2007, Christopher Nolan was named the 32nd greatest director of all time by Total Film. He was ranked in #14 by The Guardian in the list of ”The 23 Best Film Directors in the World". In 2015, Time Magazine featured him in "100 most influential people in the world".