Taika David Cohen known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award as well as two further nominations.
Taika has made a run of successful films, most of which mix comedy with moments of drama. Waititi’s belief is that putting happiness and joy on screen is a worthy challenge — and that comedy is underrated.
His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film, with the latter still holding that title as of April 2020.
He co-directed and starred in the horror-comedy film What We Do in the Shadows (2014) with Jemaine Clement. Waititi’s most recent directing credits include the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the satirical black comedy film Jojo Rabbit (2019), the latter of which he also wrote and starred in as Adolf Hitler. Jojo Rabbit earned critical praise, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and winning Waititi the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.