Arau has had a long and fruitful career both in front and behind the camera and is one of the most prominent filmmakers of the Latino community in Hollywood. Arau was a drama disciple of Seki Sano - a Japanese teacher, classmate of Lee Strassberg with Stanislavski in Russia - and traveled the world from 1964 to 1968 with his one-man show of Pantomime Happy Madness after studying with Etienne Dacroux and Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

A renowned writer-producer-director-actor in theater and films for the past twenty years, Arau directed in 1969 his first feature film _Barefoot Eagle (1969)_ , which he also starred. He has directed many films in Mexico among them _Calzonzin Inspector (1973)_ and Mojado Power. He has received 6 Arieles, the Mexican equivalent to the Oscar, and numerous international film awards.

Arau has acted in a number of Mexican and Hollywood films, including _The Wild Bunch (1969)_ , Topo, El Mojado Power, Used Cars, Romancing the Stone, ¡Three Amigos! and Committed. In addition to _Like Water for Chocolate (1992)_ , his directing credits include A Walk in the Clouds with ‘Keanu Reeves’ and ‘Picking Up The Pieces’ (2000)_ with ‘Woody Allen’ . His most recent work is _”Magnificent Amberson, The” (2002) (mini)_ , based on the script of ‘Orson Welles’ and the novel by Booth Tarkington.


During the 50s performed in Mexican TV with partner Sergio Corona, as one half of the dancing and singing comedy duo "Corona y Arau".