Robert Rodriguez

Helmed "Planet Terror," the zombie themed half of the goretastic double feature "Grind House" a collaboration with Quentin Tarantino

Directed "The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D," an advanture film scripted by his young son

Helmed the feature film based on the "Sin City" series of comic books and graphic novels created, written, and illustrated by Frank Miller

Again collaborated with Banderas on "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" a sequel to "Desperado"

Reteamed with the cast of "Spy Kids" to film "Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams"

Reteamed with Banderas for "Spy Kids"; served as writer-director

Directed and edited the teen horror thriller "The Faculty", scripted by Kevin Williamson

Edited and directed the vampire-themed "From Dusk Till Dawn", written by and starring Quentin Tarantino

Helmed "The Misbehavers" segment of "Four Rooms"

Produced, wrote, edited and directed "Desperado", starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek

TV debut, scripted, directed, edited and wrote a song for "Roadracers", a TV-movie remake of a 1959 American International Pictures production, broadcast as part of Showtime's "Rebel Highway" series

"El Mariachi" released by Columbia in Spanish with subtitles; one of the cheapest films ever released by a studio

Signed a two-year writing-directing deal with Columbia Pictures, which also agreed to release "El Mariachi"

Signed with ICM's Robert Newman, who sent tapes of the film to all the major studios

During his summer break from college, volunteered to spend a month in a research hospital as a test subject for a new cholesterol drug

Shot (in two weeks), sound-recorded (in Spanish for the Mexican home video market), edited (on video) and directed "El Mariachi", his first feature

Wrote screenplay for "El Mariachi" while in hospital

Began making films at age 13 (date approximate)

Columbia paid to re-edit "El Mariachi" on film

Completed nearly 30 short narrative films with borrowed equipment and very little money

Completed the film from script through an electronic final edit for $7000, using the $3000 hospital pay and $4000 from a friend

Continued making Super 8 movies outside of school

Directed an eight-minute long short entitled "Bedhead," starring four of his nine siblings

Featured his youngest siblings in "Austin Stories", an award-winning video anthology which helped him gain admission to film school

Initially rejected by the film program at the University of Texas at Austin

Made first 16mm short at the University of Texas at Austin

Sent a trailer for "El Mariachi" to an agent at International Creative Management (ICM) to get feedback on his work

Starting writing and drawing a daily comic strip entitled "Los Hooligans", featuring characters inspired by his younger siblings, which ran for three years in the "Daily Texan" newspaper

Won prizes at 14 film festivals with his short film, "Bedhead"