Guillermo del Toro
Directing
- Born:
- 1964-10-09
- Place of birth:
- Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Biography
Guillermo del Toro Gómez (Spanish: [ɡiˈʝeɾmo ðelˈtoɾo]; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, gothicism, and horror, often blending the genres to infuse visual or poetic beauty into the grotesque. He has had a lifelong fascination with monsters, which he considers symbols of great power. He is known for pioneering dark fantasy in the film industry and using insectile and religious imagery, his themes of Catholicism, and celebrating imperfection, underworld motifs, practical special effects, and dominant amber lighting. Throughout his career, del Toro has shifted between Spanish-language films—such as Cronos (1993), The Devil's Backbone (2001), and Pan's Labyrinth (2006)—and English-language films, including Mimic (1997), Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army(2008), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), The Shape of Water (2017), Nightmare Alley (2021), and Pinocchio (2022). As a producer or writer, he worked on the films The Orphanage (2007), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010), The Hobbit film series (2012–2014), Mama (2013), The Book of Life (2014), Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), and The Witches (2020). In 2022, he created the Netflix anthology horror series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, featuring a collection of classical horror stories. With Chuck Hogan, he co-authored The Strain trilogy of novels (2009–2011), which was later adapted into a comic book series (2011–15) and a live-action television series (2014–17). With DreamWorks Animation and Netflix, he created the animated franchise Tales of Arcadia, which includes the series Trollhunters (2016–18), 3Below (2018–19), and Wizards (2020) and the sequel film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021). Del Toro is close friends with fellow Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, collectively known as "The Three Amigos of Mexican Cinema". He has received several awards, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Golden Lion. He was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018, and he received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019.
Known For
Filmography
The Anatomy Lesson: Director’s Cut
THE ORIGIN OF ULTRAMAN
The Thing Expanded
Avatar: A New Era - Special Edition of 20/20
Frankenstein: The Anatomy Lesson
Mollusk
The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld
Sangre del Toro
It’s a Mad Max World
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
Netflix Tudum 2025
Surrealistic Nightmares: An In-Depth Look at Walloon Horror Cinema
Leonardo da Vinci
Dario Argento: Panico
Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre
Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds
George Pal: Un Marciano De Hollywood En Argentina
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities
Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story
Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster
Directors on Directors
I'm No Longer Here: A Discussion with Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón
Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business
Love, Antosha
Elvis Goes There
Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film
The House Is Alive: Constructing 'Crimson Peak'
Guillermo del Toro: Un director y su Oscar
Bloody And Groovy Baby! A Tribute to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2
James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
Barry
Light in the Darkness: The Impact of Night of The Living Dead
When Romero Met Del Toro
78/52
Five Came Back
Five Came Back
Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia
The Giant's Dream: The Making of the Iron Giant
I Remember Crimson Peak
The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak
A Living Thing
Hand Tailored Gothic
Crimson Phantoms
Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex
The First Hundred Feet, the Last Hundred Feet
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Metal Gear Solid: Legacy
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
Extraordinary Tales
The Late Late Show with James Corden
Lennon or McCartney
The Game Awards
The Book of Life
The Director's Chair
Guillermo del Toro Interviews Paul Williams
Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics
The Digital Artistry of Pacific Rim
The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy
Spanish Gothic
Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
El Santos vs la Tetona Mendoza
Men in Suits
Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan
Puss in Boots
Zombie Lover
Reclaiming 'Mimic'
A Leap in Evolution: The Creatures of 'Mimic'
Back Into the Tunnels: The Making of 'Mimic'
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
Bob Burns' Hollywood Haloween
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock
The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
El último truco
Hellboy: In Service of the Demon
Quantum of Solace
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
Edith Head: Dressing the Master's Movies
Bernard Herrmann: Hitchcock's Maestro
Saul Bass: Title Champ
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
Partners in Crime: Hitchcock's Collaborators
Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't
Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist
The Power of Myth
Pan and the Fairies
The Melody Echoes the Fairy Tale
The Color and the Shape
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner
Nexus Generation: Fans & Filmmakers
Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard
Diary of the Dead
07 Spaceys
Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation
Que es un fantasma?
Hellboy
Que es un Fantasma?: The Making of 'The Devil's Backbone'
Noin
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Masters of Horror
The Blood Pact: The Making of 'Blade II'
HypaSpace
The Devil's Backbone: Behind the Scenes
Bullfighter
Futurama
Cronos
The Simpsons
The Oscars
Golden Globe Awards
The Fall: Part I
The Fall: Part II