Christopher Nolan is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $4.9 billion worldwide. The recipient of many accolades, he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, and in 2019, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.

Nolan developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. After studying English literature at University College London, he made several short films before his feature film debut with Following (1998). Nolan gained international recognition with his second film, Memento (2000), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Nolan transitioned from independent to studio filmmaking with Insomnia (2002), and found further critical and commercial success with The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010); the last of these earned Nolan two Oscar nominations—Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. This was followed by Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Tenet (2020). For Dunkirk, he earned two Academy Award nominations, including his first for Best Director.

Nolan’s work regularly feature in listings of the best films of their respective decades. They are typically characterized by epistemology and existentialism. Infused with a metaphysical outlook, they explore human ethics, the construction of time, and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity. His work is permeated with mathematically inspired images and concepts, unconventional narrative structures, practical special effects, experimental soundscapes, large-format film photography and materialistic perspectives. He has co-written several of his films with his brother Jonathan, and runs the production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife Emma Thomas.

Christopher Edward Nolan was born on 30 July 1970, in Westminster, London, and grew up in Highgate.

Nolan has made some of the most influential and popular films of his time. Many of his films have been regarded by critics as among the best of their respective decades, and according to The Wall Street Journal, his “ability to combine box-office success with artistic ambition has given him an extraordinary amount of clout in the industry” . His films have earned $4.9 billion. Nolan’s films Memento and The Dark Knight have been selected by the US Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

These films and Inception appeared in BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century and The Hollywood Reporter’s poll of best films ever made. In 2017, The Dark Knight, Inception and Interstellar featured in Empire magazine’s poll of “The 100 Greatest Movies”.[194] Nolan has been described as “American cinema’s most experimental blockbuster author” and a “franchise unto himself”.[196] In 2022, Parade ranked Nolan number eight in its list of 75 Best Movie Directors of All Time.