Guillermo Del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, Del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from Dick Smith (The Exorcist) and worked on making his own short films. At the age of 21, Del Toro executive produced his first feature, Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1986). Del Toro spent almost 10 years as a makeup supervisor, and formed his own company, Necropia in the early 1980s. He also produced and directed Mexican television programs at this time, and taught film.

Del Toro got his first big break when Cronos (1992) won nine academy awards in Mexico, then went on to win the International Critics Week prize at Cannes. Following this success, Del Toro made his first Hollywood film, Mimic (1997), starring Mira Sorvino.

Del Toro had some unfortunate experiences working with a demanding Hollywood studio on Mimic, and returned to Mexico to form his own production company, The Tequila Gang.

Next for Del Toro, was The Devil's Backbone (2001), a Spanish Civil War ghost story. The film was hailed by critics and audiences alike, and Del Toro decided to give Hollywood another try. In 2002, he directed the Wesley Snipes vampire sequel, Blade II.

On a roll, Del Toro followed up Blade II with another successful comic-book inspired film, Hellboy, starring one of Del Toro's favorite actors, Ron Perlman.

Married with children, Guillermo Del Toro currently lives in Los Angeles.


Became a vegetarian after seeing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) but only for four years. Currently, he's no longer a vegetarian. Fought the film studios for almost seven years to get Ron Perlman for the title role in Hellboy (2004). The studio wanted a bigger name to ensure the success of the movie, but del Toro thought that Perlman was the perfect choice and wouldn't make the movie if he wasn't cast. Has a photographic memory. In a January 2007 interview on the radio program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," said that his strictly Catholic grandmother was a "Piper Laurie in Carrie (1976)" figure in his childhood. He told Gross that his grandmother would require him to mortify himself in self-punishment, in one case placing metal bottle caps into his shoes so that the soles of his feet were bloodied while walking to school. She also tried to exorcise him twice because of his persistent interest in fantasy and drawing monsters from his imagination. In 2007, he was one of 10 Mexican Oscar-nominees. The others were Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo Arriaga, Adriana Barraza, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo Navarro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta and Fernando Cámara. Turned down a chance to direct I Am Legend (2007), One Missed Call (2008), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and Halo (2012) to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). States Mimic (1997) as the worst of his films and has disowned it, blaming constant interference from the producers as the reason for the poor result. Was asked to direct End of Days (1999), but he turned it down. Is good friends with director Robert Rodriguez.