1980–1989: Early jobs and screenplays Through the 1980s, Tarantino had a number of jobs. After lying about his age, he worked as an
usher at an
adult movie theater in Torrance, called the
Pussycat Theater. He spent time as a recruiter in the
aerospace industry, and for five years he worked at
Video Archives, a video store in
Manhattan Beach, California. He was well known in the local community for his film knowledge and video recommendations; Tarantino stated, "When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, 'No, I went to films. In 1986, Tarantino was employed in his first Hollywood job, working with Video Archives colleague
Roger Avary, as
production assistants on
Dolph Lundgren's exercise video,
Maximum Potential. Before working at Video Archives, Tarantino co-wrote
Love Birds In Bondage with Scott Magill. Tarantino would go on to produce and direct the short film. Magill committed suicide in 1987, after which all film shot was destroyed. Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the
James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators for his next film. In 1987, Tarantino co-wrote and directed ''
My Best Friend's Birthday (1987). It was left uncompleted, but some of its dialogue was included in True Romance''. The following year, he played an
Elvis impersonator in "Sophia's Wedding: Part 1", an episode in the
fourth season of
The Golden Girls, which was broadcast on November 19, 1988. Tarantino recalled that the pay he received for the part helped support him during the preproduction of
Reservoir Dogs; he estimated he was initially paid about $650 but went on to receive about $3,000 in
residuals over three years because the episode was frequently rerun due to it being on a "best of..." lineup.
1990–1999: Breakthrough and acclaim .|alt=Tarantino has had a number of collaborations with director Robert Rodriguez After meeting
Lawrence Bender at a friend's barbecue, Tarantino discussed with him about an unwritten dialogue-driven
heist film. Bender encouraged Tarantino to write the screenplay, which he wrote in three and a half weeks and presented to Bender unformatted. Impressed with the script, Bender managed to forward it through contacts to director
Monte Hellman. Hellman cleaned up the screenplay and helped secure funding from
Richard N. Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan, now known as
Lionsgate).
Harvey Keitel read the script and also contributed to the budget, taking a role as co-producer and also playing a major part in the picture. In January 1992, it was released as Tarantino's crime thriller
Reservoir Dogs—which he wrote, directed, and acted in as Mr. Brown—and screened at the
Sundance Film Festival. The film was an immediate hit, receiving a positive response from critics. Tarantino's screenplay
True Romance was
optioned and the film was eventually released in 1993. The second script that Tarantino sold was for the film
Natural Born Killers, which was revised by Dave Veloz, Richard Rutowski and director
Oliver Stone. Tarantino was given story credit and stated in an interview that he wished the film well, but later disowned the final film. Tarantino also did an uncredited rewrite on ''
It's Pat (1994). Other films where he was an uncredited screenwriter include Crimson Tide (1995) and The Rock'' (1996). Following the success of
Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino was approached by
major film studios and offered projects that included
Speed (1994) and
Men in Black (1997), but he instead retreated to
Amsterdam to work on his script for
Pulp Fiction. Tarantino wrote, directed, and acted in the dark comedy crime film
Pulp Fiction in 1994, maintaining the graphic depiction of violence from his earlier film as well as the
non-linear storylines. The film was nominated for seven
Academy Awards, including
Best Picture. Tarantino was nominated for
Best Director and won
Best Original Screenplay, which he shared with
Roger Avary. Tarantino also won the for the film at the
1994 Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed over $200 million and earned positive reviews. In 1995, Tarantino participated in the anthology film
Four Rooms, a collaboration that also included directors Robert Rodriguez,
Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell. Tarantino directed and acted in the fourth segment of "The Man from Hollywood", a tribute to the
Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "
Man from the South". He joined Rodriguez again later in the year with a supporting role in
Desperado. One of Tarantino's first paid writing assignments was for
From Dusk till Dawn, which Rodriguez directed later in 1996, re-teaming with Tarantino in another acting role, alongside Harvey Keitel,
George Clooney and
Juliette Lewis. His third feature film was
Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel
Rum Punch. A homage to
blaxploitation films, it starred
Pam Grier, who starred in many of the films of that genre in the 1970s. It received positive reviews and was called a "comeback" for Grier and co-star
Robert Forster. Leonard considered
Jackie Brown to be his favorite of the 26 different screen adaptations of his novels and short stories. In the 1990s, Tarantino had a number of other minor acting roles, including in
Eddie Presley (1992),
The Coriolis Effect (1994),
Sleep With Me (1994),
Somebody to Love (1994),
All-American Girl (1995),
Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995), and
Girl 6 (1996). Also in 1996, he starred in ''
Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, a simulation video game that uses pre-generated film clips. In 1998, Tarantino made his major Broadway stage debut as an amoral psycho killer in a revival of the 1966 play Wait Until Dark'', which received unfavorable reviews for his performance from critics.
2000–2009: Subsequent success Tarantino went on to write and direct
Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of
Chinese martial arts films,
Japanese period dramas,
Spaghetti Westerns, and
Italian horror. It was based on a character called
The Bride and a plot that he and
Kill Bills lead actress
Uma Thurman had developed during the making of
Pulp Fiction. It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but its four-hour running time prompted Tarantino to divide it into two movies. Tarantino says he still considers it a single film in his overall filmography. From 2002 to 2004, Tarantino portrayed villain
McKenas Cole in the
ABC television series
Alias. In 2004, Tarantino attended the
2004 Cannes Film Festival, where he served as president of the jury.
Volume 2 of
Kill Bill had a screening there, but was not in competition. Tarantino then contributed to Robert Rodriguez's 2005
neo-noir film
Sin City, and was credited as "Special Guest Director" for his work directing the car sequence featuring
Clive Owen and
Benicio del Toro. In May 2005, Tarantino co-wrote and directed "
Grave Danger", the
fifth season finale of
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. For this episode, Tarantino was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the
57th Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2007, Tarantino directed the
exploitation slasher film Death Proof. Released as a take on 1970s
double features, under the banner
Grindhouse, it was co-directed with Rodriguez who did the other feature which was the
body horror film
Planet Terror. Box-office sales were low but the film garnered mostly positive reviews. Tarantino's film
Inglourious Basterds, released in 2009, is the story of a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers in
Nazi-occupied France in an alternate history of
World War II. He had planned to start work on the film after
Jackie Brown but postponed this to make
Kill Bill after a meeting with Uma Thurman. Filming began on "
Inglorious Bastards", as it was provisionally titled, in October 2008. The film opened in August 2009 to positive reviews with the highest box office gross in the US and Canada for the weekend on release. For the film, Tarantino earned his second nominations for both the
Academy Award for Best Director and the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
2010–2019: Established auteur '' live reading at the
Ace Hotel Los Angeles in April 2014|alt=The Hateful Eight Live Reading at the Ace Hotel Los Angeles, as part of LACMA's Live Read on April 19, 2014 In 2011, production began on
Django Unchained, a film about the revenge of a former
slave in the
Southern United States in 1858. The film stemmed from Tarantino's desire to produce a
Spaghetti Western set in America's
Deep South during the
Antebellum Period. Tarantino called the proposed style "a southern", It was released in December 2012 and became his highest grossing film to date. He won his second
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In November 2013, Tarantino said he was working on a new film and that it would be another Western, though not a sequel to
Django Unchained. On January 11, 2014, it was revealed that the film would be titled
The Hateful Eight. The script was then leaked in January 2014. Aggrieved by the breach of confidence, Tarantino considered abandoning the production which was due to start the next winter and publish it as a novel instead. He stated that he had given the script to a few trusted colleagues, including
Bruce Dern,
Tim Roth and
Michael Madsen. On April 19, 2014, Tarantino directed a live reading of the leaked script at the United Artists Theater in the
Ace Hotel Los Angeles for the
Live Read series. Tarantino explained that they would read the first draft of the script, and added that he was writing two new drafts with a different ending. Filming went ahead as planned with the new draft in January 2015.
The Hateful Eight was released on December 25, 2015, as a
roadshow presentation in
70 mm film-format theaters, before being released in digital theaters on December 30, 2015. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. at the
2019 Cannes Film Festival|alt=Tarantino with Margot Robbie at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival In July 2017, it was reported that Tarantino's next project would be a film about the
Manson Family murders. In February 2018, it was announced that the film's title would be
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and that
Leonardo DiCaprio would play
Rick Dalton, a fictional star of television Westerns, with
Brad Pitt as Dalton's longtime stunt double Cliff Booth;
Margot Robbie would be playing real life actress
Sharon Tate, portrayed as Dalton's next-door neighbor. Filming took place in the summer of 2018. In wake of the
Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Tarantino severed ties to
The Weinstein Company and
Miramax and sought a new distributor after working with Weinstein for his entire career. The film officially premiered at the
2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition for the .
Sony Pictures eventually distributed the film, which was theatrically released in July 2019. It received critical acclaim
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone declared, "Tarantino's all-star fantasia links Hollywood and Manson-era violence into the best and most explosive cinema we've seen all year." The film earned ten
Oscar nominations at the
92nd Academy Awards, including three for Tarantino for
Best Picture,
Best Director and
Best Original Screenplay.
2020–present: Tenth and final film and other projects In 2009, Tarantino said that he planned to retire from filmmaking when he is 60 to focus on writing novels and film literature. He is skeptical of the film industry going digital, saying, "If it actually gets to the place where you can't show
35 mm film in theaters anymore and everything is digital projection, I won't even make it to 60." He said though "not etched in stone" he intends to retire after making his tenth movie: "If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don't screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career." In November 2022, Tarantino revealed plans to shoot an eight-episode television series in 2023. No further details were provided. Tarantino later elaborated that this project was
The Movie Critic, which he later adapted into a film script before deciding not to pursue the project in either format. The film was set in 1977 and centered on a man who wrote movie reviews for a porn magazine. He stated: "I was so excited about the writing, but I wasn't really that excited about dramatizing what I wrote once we were in pre-production." In January 2025, at the
2025 Sundance Film Festival, Tarantino said he was in "no hurry" to make his final film, preferring to wait at least a year, prioritizing to instead write a stage play. In March 2026, it was announced by
TMZ that Tarantino and
Sylvester Stallone would co-direct and co-write a six-part
miniseries featuring gangsters, showgirls, boxing, and music. The series is set to be shot in black and white, using 1930s cameras.
As a producer Tarantino has used his Hollywood power to give smaller and foreign films more attention. These films are often labeled "Presented by Quentin Tarantino" or "Quentin Tarantino Presents". In 1995, Tarantino formed
Rolling Thunder Pictures with Miramax to release or re-release several independent and foreign features. By 1997, Miramax had shut down the company due to poor sales. The following films were released by Rolling Thunder Pictures:
Chungking Express (1994, dir.
Wong Kar-wai),
Switchblade Sisters (1975, dir.
Jack Hill),
Sonatine (1993, dir.
Takeshi Kitano),
Hard Core Logo (1996, dir.
Bruce McDonald),
The Mighty Peking Man (1977, dir.
Ho Meng Hua),
Detroit 9000 (1973, dir.
Arthur Marks),
The Beyond (1981, dir.
Lucio Fulci), and
Curdled (1996, dir. Reb Braddock). In 2001, he produced the US release of the Hong Kong martial arts film
Iron Monkey, which made over $14 million worldwide. In 2004, he brought the Chinese martial arts film
Hero to the US. It opened at number-one at the box office and eventually earning $53.5 million. While Tarantino was in negotiations with
Lucy Liu for
Kill Bill, the two helped produce the
Hungarian sports documentary ''
Freedom's Fury'', which was released in 2006. When he was approached about a documentary about the
Blood in the Water match, a
water polo match between
Hungary and the
USSR at the
1956 Melbourne Olympics, Tarantino said "This is the best story I've ever been told. I'd love to be involved". He presented 2006's
The Protector, and is a producer of the 2007 film
Hostel: Part II. In 2008, he produced the
Larry Bishop-helmed
Hell Ride, a revenge biker film.
As a film exhibitor In February 2010, Tarantino bought the
New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Tarantino allowed the previous owners to continue operating the theater, but stated he would make occasional programming suggestions. He was quoted as saying: "As long as I'm alive, and as long as I'm rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing films shot on 35 mm." Starting in 2014, Tarantino took a more active role in programming film screenings at the New Beverly, showing his own films as well as prints from his personal collection. In 2021, Tarantino announced that he had also purchased the
Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, stating that he intends to keep it a first-run theatre, and that like The New Beverly it will only show movies on film. == Filmmaking style and influence ==