Born July 30, 1971 in England, Nolan moved to Chicago, IL with his British father and American mother during his formative years. Like many future filmmakers, Nolan began making amateur movies at an early age, playing around with a Super 8mm camera that belonged to his father. After returning to England to attend boarding school at Haileybury College, he matriculated at University College in London to study literature. During his time at University College, Nolan began to take an interest in film, shooting several shorts for the college film society, including "Tarantella" (1989), which was showcased in the United States on PBS. By the mid-90s, he began working with actor Jeremy Theobold, who appeared in the shorts "Larceny" and "Doodlebug." Nolan then made his feature debut with "Following" (1998), a 16mm black-and-white film noir he spent a year shooting on weekends with a budget of $6,000. “Following” told the tale of a blocked writer (Theobold) who spends his days stalking strangers with the hope of jump-starting his imagination. But when one of his so-called victims (Alex Haw) turns the tables, the scribe suddenly finds himself as the fall-guy in a series of break-ins. Juggling time via flashbacks and flash forwards, Nolan established a key signature of his work in which chronology takes a back seat to character.
Nolan took a giant leap forward with his second film, "Memento" (2000), working from an unpublished short story written by his brother Jonathan. An intriguing twist on the conventional film noir, "Memento" centered on Leonard Selby (Guy Pearce), a former insurance adjuster suffering from anterograde amnesia, a condition that prevents him from forming new memories. With the help of a man claiming to be his friend (Joe Pantoliano), a sympathetic barmaid (Carrie-Anne Moss) and several tattoos on his body that serve as reminders, Leonard hunts down the man who raped and killed his wife. While the heart of the piece was a conventional revenge drama, the chronology of the story was backwards, starting with a brilliant opening scene with a murder shown in reverse. Both fascinating and complex, "Memento" earned great critical acclaim when it opened at the 2000 Venice International Film Festival and ended its promotional run at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, where Nolan won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Despite being based on his brother's fiction, Nolan's screenplay was nominated by the Academy for Best Original Screenplay. The film subsequently earned four Independent Spirit Award wins in 2002, including Best Feature.
Capitalizing on his newfound success, Nolan directed the English-language remake of the 1997 Norwegian crime thriller, "Insomnia" (2002), a slick neo-noir thriller about a legendary Los Angeles detective (Al Pacino) who goes to a small Alaskan town to investigate the disturbing murder of a 17-year-old girl, while at the same time, suffering sleep deprivation caused by a relentless Midnight Sun. While he gets help from a bright, but green local officer (Hilary Swank), the detective finds himself struggling against a wily adversary (Robin Williams) and his own deteriorating stability. Though not nearly as hailed as “Momento,” Nolan’s third film earned substantial praise and a decent box office take.
Though content with his body of work, Nolan wanted a shot at directing a big Hollywood blockbuster. He got his wish after making a passionate pitch to Warner Bros. on reviving their floundered “Batman” franchise, which suffered humiliation after two flamboyantly over-the-top installments directed Joel Schumacher. Joining screenwriter and comic book author David S. Goyer, Nolan took the film series 180 degrees from Schumacher’s gaudy direction, envisioning "Batman Begins" (2005) as a pitch-black psychological exploration into the origins of the avenging knight. Taking inspiration from the post-"Dark Knight Returns" era of comics, Nolan's film traced the journey of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) from orphaned millionaire to intensely skilled crime fighter. Taking great pains to craft both a Gotham City and an outer world that was as realistic as its pulpy source material would allow, Nolan eschewed campy theatrics and computer-generated effects in favor of nuanced acting and old-fashioned stunt work. Meanwhile, Nolan attracted an all-star cast, including Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson. Though the film lacked some of the darkly manic pop inspiration that characterized the Tim Burton films, "Batman Begins” was a breath of fresh air for loyal fans and moviegoers, while the film proved to be both a critical and commercial success.
For his next feature, “The Prestige” (2006), Nolan returned to his indie roots with this supernatural thriller about two Victorian-era magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) engaged in a powerful rivalry involving a dangerously escalating tit-for-tat competition in order to uncover one another’s trade secrets. Despite a cold, measured approach, Nolan nonetheless dazzled audiences with an engaging, even thrilling display of visual trickery, time-jumping edits and elaborate showmanship. Perhaps not as dynamic as “Batman Returns” or as revered as “Memento,” “The Prestige” helped cement Nolan as a bona fide talent. Meanwhile, he directed the second installment of the revived “Batman” series, “The Dark Knight” (2008), which starred a returning Bale and Heath Ledger as the iconic Gotham villain, The Joker.
The hype and anticipation for the film, and particularly for Ledger’s performance, was at an all-time high when tragedy struck. On Jan. 22, 2008, Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment of what would later be deemed an accidental prescription drug overdose. Originally, Warner Bros. marketed the film with a haunting poster of Ledger as The Joker scrawling “Why So Serious?” in blood, but his death forced the studio to stop using the ads and figure out how to market a film in the wake of the shocking death of one of its lead stars. Meanwhile, Nolan – along with many others in the business – offered his heartfelt condolences to Ledger’s family and friends, and promised the film would be a final, fitting tribute to Ledger.