Todd Phillips is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter who grew up on Long Island, New York, influenced by feature film teen comedies of the 1980s.
As a student at New York University, he created a documentary called Hated (1994) using his credit cards to finance the film's $13,000 budget, which won an award at the New Orleans Film Festival and was released both theatrically and on DVD.
His next project was a documentary called Frat House (1998),which followed the trials of young men trying to get accepted into a fraternity, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, but was later banned from public viewing due to objections from the participants' families.
Phillips met comedian Tom Green while working on a commercial for Pepsi and asked him to star in his new film, Road Trip, which was made on a budget of $15.6 million and received mixed reviews, with some finding it offensive and others funny.
He continued to make comedies, including Old School (2003) about three grown men trying to return to their frat boy days, Starsky & Hutch (2004) based on the hit television series, and School for Scoundrels (2006) starring Jon Heder and Billy Bob Thornton.
Phillips then directed the successful action comedy The Hangover (2009) and its sequels, as well as Due Date (2010) starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.
He later directed War Dogs (2016) and then took on the film Joker (2019) starring Joaquin Phoenix, which debuted to much acclaim and earned numerous award nominations, including Best Director nods for Phillips from the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and the BAFTAs.
