Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro Gómez (Spanish: [ɡiˈʝeɾmo ðelˈtoɾo]; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, gothicism, and horror, often blending the genres to infuse visual or poetic beauty into the grotesque. He has had a lifelong fascination with monsters, which he considers symbols of great power. He is known for pioneering dark fantasy in the film industry and using insectile and religious imagery, his themes of Catholicism, and celebrating imperfection, underworld motifs, practical special effects, and dominant amber lighting.

Throughout his career, del Toro has shifted between Spanish-language films—such as Cronos (1993), The Devil's Backbone (2001), and Pan's Labyrinth (2006)—and English-language films, including Mimic (1997), Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army(2008), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), The Shape of Water (2017), Nightmare Alley (2021), and Pinocchio (2022).

As a producer or writer, he worked on the films The Orphanage (2007), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010), The Hobbit film series (2012–2014), Mama (2013), The Book of Life (2014), Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), and The Witches (2020). In 2022, he created the Netflix anthology horror series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, featuring a collection of classical horror stories.

With Chuck Hogan, he co-authored The Strain trilogy of novels (2009–2011), which was later adapted into a comic book series (2011–15) and a live-action television series (2014–17). With DreamWorks Animation and Netflix, he created the animated franchise Tales of Arcadia, which includes the series Trollhunters (2016–18), 3Below (2018–19), and Wizards (2020) and the sequel film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021).

Del Toro is close friends with fellow Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, collectively known as "The Three Amigos of Mexican Cinema". He has received several awards, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Golden Lion. He was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018, and he received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019.

Filmography (110 Appearances)

The Thing Expanded

TBA

Frankenstein: The Anatomy Lesson

2025

Mollusk

2025

The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld

2025

Sangre del Toro

2025

It’s a Mad Max World

2025

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

2025

Netflix Tudum 2025

2025

Surrealistic Nightmares: An In-Depth Look at Walloon Horror Cinema

2025

Leonardo da Vinci

2024

Dario Argento: Panico

2024

Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre

2023

Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds

2023

George Pal: Un Marciano De Hollywood En Argentina

2023

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema

2022

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

2022

Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story

2022

Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters

2022

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster

2021

Directors on Directors

2021

I'm No Longer Here: A Discussion with Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón

2020

Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business

2020

Love, Antosha

2019

Elvis Goes There

2019

Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film

2019

The House Is Alive: Constructing 'Crimson Peak'

2019

Guillermo del Toro: Un director y su Oscar

2018

Bloody And Groovy Baby! A Tribute to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2

2018

James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction

2018

Barry

2018

Light in the Darkness: The Impact of Night of The Living Dead

2018

When Romero Met Del Toro

2017

78/52

2017

Five Came Back

2017

Five Came Back

2017

The Giant's Dream: The Making of the Iron Giant

2016

Crimson Phantoms

2016

A Living Thing

2016

I Remember Crimson Peak

2016

Hand Tailored Gothic

2016

The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak

2016

Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex

2015

The First Hundred Feet, the Last Hundred Feet

2015

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

2015

Metal Gear Solid: Legacy

2015

Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter

2015

Extraordinary Tales

2015

The Late Late Show with James Corden

2015

Lennon or McCartney

2014

The Game Awards

2014

The Book of Life

2014

The Director's Chair

2014

Guillermo del Toro Interviews Paul Williams

2014

Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics

2013

The Digital Artistry of Pacific Rim

2013

The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy

2013

Spanish Gothic

2013

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

2013

El Santos vs la Tetona Mendoza

2012

Men in Suits

2012

Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss

2012

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan

2012

Puss in Boots

2011

Zombie Lover

2011

Back Into the Tunnels: The Making of 'Mimic'

2011

Reclaiming 'Mimic'

2011

A Leap in Evolution: The Creatures of 'Mimic'

2011

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

2011

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

2010

Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock

2009

North by Northwest: One for the Ages

2009

The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style

2009

El último truco

2008

Hellboy: In Service of the Demon

2008

Quantum of Solace

2008

Edith Head: Dressing the Master's Movies

2008

Saul Bass: Title Champ

2008

In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy

2008

Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock

2008

Bernard Herrmann: Hitchcock's Maestro

2008

Partners in Crime: Hitchcock's Collaborators

2008

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown

2008

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2008

Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound

2008

The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't

2008

Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist

2008

The Power of Myth

2007

The Color and the Shape

2007

The Melody Echoes the Fairy Tale

2007

Pan and the Fairies

2007

Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner

2007

Nexus Generation: Fans & Filmmakers

2007

Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard

2007

Diary of the Dead

2007

07 Spaceys

2007

Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy

2005

Torrente 3: The Protector

2005

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2005

Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation

2004

Hellboy

2004

Que es un Fantasma?: The Making of 'The Devil's Backbone'

2004

Noin

2003

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

2003

Masters of Horror

2002

The Blood Pact: The Making of 'Blade II'

2002

HypaSpace

2002

Bullfighter

2000

Futurama

1999

Cronos

1993 Debut

The Simpsons

1989
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