Robert Rodriguez is a film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician.
While a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991, Robert Rodriguez wrote the script to his first feature film while sequestered at a drug research facility as a paid subject in a clinical experiment. That paycheck covered the cost of shooting his film. He planned to make the money back by selling the film to the Mexican home video market.
The film, El Mariachi, went on to win the coveted Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, and became the lowest budget movie ever released by a major studio. Rodriguez wrote about these experiences in Rebel Without a Crew, a perennial guide for the independent filmmaker.
Rodriguez went on to write, produce, direct and edit a series of successful films including Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, the Spy Kids franchise, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Frank Miller’s Sin City, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, Grindhouse, Machete and Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For, and embarked on a collaboration with iconic film director James Cameron on the film adaptation of Alita: Battle Angel which Cameron is producing alongside Rodriguez directing.
In 2000, Rodriguez founded Troublemaker Studios, an Austin, Texas based production facility of which he is co-owner and president. The studio includes a world-renowned visual effects house, music and publishing arms and has played a primary role in making Austin a vibrant filmmaking hub.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of El Mariachi Rodriguez went back to his roots and launched a docu-series for El Rey Network in which he invited 5 filmmakers to make a feature film for only $7,000 dollars and 14 days to shoot called Rebel without a Crew. In addition to the series, he also challenged himself to make a feature film under the same constraints, that film is titled Red 11. Red 11 production was also documented for a 6-part docu-series featuring Rodriguez and his son Racer making the film called Rebel without a Crew: The Robert Rodriguez Film School. Red 11 and a sneak preview of the docu-series had its world premiere at SXSW in March of 2019.
In 2017, Rodriguez, alongside his sons Racer and Rebel, formed Double R Productions, a development and production company with capabilities to produce media projects across film, television, gaming, and interactive platforms. In addition to Red 11, Double R produced a state of the art VR live-action short called the The Limit as well as as a new feature film, We Can Be Heroes, in partnership with Netflix.
We Can Be Heroes has become one of Netflix’s most popular films of all time.
He recently directed the Lady Gaga/Ariana Grande video "Rain on Me," and an episode of The Mandalorian which led to him currently producing the new Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett.
He resides in Austin, Texas.
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