Robert Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA. At a very young age he showed an interest in cartooning and filmmaking and devoted all his time to this developing fascination. Finally it resulted for him in making real movies, and just first of them - Mariachi, El - made him the legend of independent ultra-low budget filmmaking. His further career is a sign for young filmmakers that even the most wild dream may come true if you are brave enough to follow your own path. Since then Robert has written, directed, and/or produced up to 10 cool movies, such as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty and Spy Kids.


Brother of Elizabeth Rodriguez, Tina Rodriguez, David Rodriguez, Rebecca Rodriguez, Patricia Vonne, and Angela Lanza. Cousin of Álvaro Rodríguez & actor Danny Trejo. Studied at St. Anthony's University, The University of Texas at Austin. In April of 1996, headed the list of "25 Most Powerful Hispanics in Hollywood", published by Hispanic Magazine. Has 5 children with Elizabeth Avellan: sons Rocket Rodriguez, Racer Rodriguez, Rebel Rodriguez, Rogue Rodriguez and daughter Rhiannon Rodriguez. Set up a symphony orchestra in his garage to record the score for Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002). Turned down the chance to direct Kevin Smith's script for "Superman Lives" (which as of 2004 is not being made in to a feature film, having been replaced with another script). Kevin Smith also pursued Rodriguez to helm his controversial religious satire Dogma (1999). Rodriguez turned it down, insisting that the project was so personal that Smith ought to do it himself. Left the Writers' Guild of America (WGA) in late 2001, citing the organization had "too many rules and just take your money." Was originally chosen to direct John Carter of Mars (2012) for Paramount and had already begun some of the preproduction in early 2004. However, once he left the DGA, Paramount (which will only allow their films to be directed by DGA members) replaced him. After seeing John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) at age 12, he knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. Absolutely loathed the fact that he had to shoot his movies on film to enter them into film festivals. Soon after Bedhead (1991) and El mariachi (1992) hit, many festivals began admitting video formats. Salma Hayek is his children's godmother. Has resigned from the DGA twice. The first time was so he could directed the non-guild Four Rooms (1995) with Quentin Tarantino and two other directors. The second time was in 2004 when he wanted to give Frank Miller a co-director credit for Sin City (2005). Other notable DGA "defectors" include his close friends George Lucas and Quentin Tarantino. Since 1998, he has possessed the film rights to the comic book "Madman" by Mike Allred. Although the film has yet to be produced, Allred is the one who helped Rodriguez get in touch with Frank Miller, which led to the latter's own comic property becoming the movie Sin City (2005). As of 2006, Rodriguez and Allred have gone on record as saying that a screenplay for the "Madman" movie (based on an outline by the two of them) had been written by George Huang, with hopes to start shooting before the end of 2006. [2008] Engaged to Rose McGowan. Lives in Austin, Texas.