Birthday: Dec 17, 1959

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA

Biography: Gregg Araki is a Japanese American film director, known for several successful independent films. He is a seminal figure of the New Queer Cinema genre. Araki made his directorial debut in 1987 with Three Bewildered People in the Night. Two years later, Araki made a name for himself on the festival circuit with Long Weekend (o' Despair). Produced, directed, written, photographed and edited by Araki. He followed this up in 1992 with The Living End. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the fil... ... (read more...) m was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.Araki's next three films comprised his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy."Totally F***ed Up (1993) chronicled the dysfunctional lives of six gay adolescents who have formed a family unit and struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of various major obstacles. The movie explored the youths' depression and homophobia.The Doom Generation, was a black comedy brimming with graphic violence, cultural symbolism and relentless eroticism. Nowhere (1997), was described by its director as "A Beverly Hills 90210 episode on acid." Araki's subsequent effort, the romantic comedy Splendor, told the story of a woman (Robertson) who cannot choose between two men and so decides to live with them both. Hailed as the director's most optimistic film to date, it made its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.Araki's next venture was the ill-fated MTV series This Is How the World Ends (2000). After the pilot was shot, however, it was not picked up for broadcast, there are however circulating the internet bootleg copies of the ill-fated mini series.Following a short hiatus, Araki returned with the critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin (2005). With this movie Araki found critical acclaim and a generally good public reaction.One consistent feature of Araki's work to date is the presence of music from the shoegazer genre as film soundtracks, first seen on Totally F***ed Up and heavily so on the films Nowhere and Mysterious Skin (even going so far as to employ Robin Guthrie to oversee the latter's score). Both The Living End and Nowhere are named after tracks by shoegazing bands (the Jesus and Mary Chain and Ride respectively).