Eli Roth

Eli Raphael Roth, born April 18, 1972, is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. Mostly associated with the horror genre, Roth has directed significant splatter films such as Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005). He continued to work in the horror genre with films like Hostel: Part II (2007), The Green Inferno (2013) and Thanksgiving (2023). However, Roth expanded his work to other genres including the erotic thriller film Knock Knock (2015), the action film remake Death Wish (2018), the fantasy film The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), and the action-comedy Borderlands (2024). As an actor, Roth is notably known for his role as Donny 'The Bear Jew' Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's war film Inglourious Basterds (2009). For this performance, he received a Critic's Choice Movie Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble. Roth has also been included in a group of filmmakers known as the Splat Pack for their explicitly violent horror films.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Roth grew up as the middle of three sons to Sheldon Roth, a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, and Cora Roth, a painter. Roth, fluent in French, Italian, and basic Russian alongside English, started shooting films at just the age of eight after viewing Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). He made a hundred short films with his brothers before attending film school at New York University. His journey in the film industry included a period of unemployment and then working on Howard Stern's Private Parts as Stern's assistant. Roth's break in Hollywood came as an extra on The Practice, thanks to actress Camryn Manheim. Roth moved to Los Angeles in 1999 and has since contributed greatly to the film industry, specializing in horror. The horror film Cabin Fever, produced on a budget of $1.5 million, became Lionsgate's highest-grossing film of 2003, catapulting Roth higher in the industry. His other notable films include Hostel, The Last Exorcism, and the remake of the film Death Wish.