Todd Phillips (né Bunzl) was born in 1970 in Brooklyn, New York City, to a family of Jewish background.
NYU Drop Out
He was raised in Huntington, Long Island, and attended New York University Film School, but dropped out because he could not afford to complete his first film and pay tuition simultaneously.
He began working at Kim’s Video and Music, and then appeared as a driver in the first season of the HBO hidden camera docu-series, “Taxicab Confessions.”
Genre Director?
He is best known for writing and directing the comedies Road Trip (2000), Old School (2003), Starsky & Hutch (2004), The Hangover Trilogy (2009, 2011, and 2013), and Due Date (2010).
For his work on the satirical comedy Borat (2006), starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Phillips was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
Phillips also expanded into other genre work directing the biographical crime film War Dogs (2016).
In 2019, he directed the psychological thriller Joker, which received the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice Film Fest.
The movie earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.