Film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He wrote his first screenplay, True Romance (1987, released 1993) while working at Video Archives, Manhattan Beach. Lacking the finance to direct the project himself, he sold his script, and also that of Natural Born Killers (released 1994), thus enabling him to start production of Reservoir Dogs (1992), in which he was director, screenwriter, and actor. The success of this film, and its successor Pulp Fiction (1994; Cannes Palme d'Or; Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), in which he had the same roles, brought him celebrity status. He then acted in several films, such as Desperado (1995), before returning to production (while continuing as an actor) with Four Rooms (1995) and Jackie Brown (1998). He wrote and directed Kill Bill, a film shown in two parts (Volumes 1 and 2), in 2003.
In January of 1992, Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, by first-time writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened on December 25th in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.