Paul Thomas Anderson

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is known for complex, critic-pleasing dramas, including 1999's Magnolia and 2008's There Will Be Blood. A child of the cinema, Anderson went about making movies right out of school, and by the time he was 25 he was directing his first feature, Hard Eight (1996, also known as Sydney). His provocative 1997 movie, Boogie Nights, made a splash, and Anderson's Oscar-nominated script got just as much attention as Mark Wahlberg's performance as a porn star. Anderson's next film, Magnolia (1999), earned him even more praise for his mature dramatic sensibilities, and brought him a second Oscar nomination for screenwriting. He then made Punch-Drunk Love (2002), a dramatic feature with comedian Adam Sandler, and oversaw parts of the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion (2006), before embarking on the American epic There Will Be Blood (starring Daniel Day-Lewis), the 2008 movie that earned eight Oscar nominations, including two for Anderson, for best director and best adapted screenplay.

Extra credit: His dad was Ernie Anderson (1923-1997), an ABC television voice talent ("...the LOVE Boat...") and, for a time in the 1960s, a Cleveland, Ohio TV host known as "Ghoulardi."