What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi is an Academy Award® and GRAMMY®-winning, Emmy®-nominated writer, director, actor and producer.Waititi directed and co-wrote Thor: Love and Thunder now streaming on Disney+. His film Jojo Rabbit received six Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture, and earned him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film, which was released by Searchlight Pictures, was also nominated for a Golden Globe® for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and won a GRAMMY for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, among other accolades. Previously, Waititi directed the critically acclaimed blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok for Disney, as well as the beloved indie films Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do in the Shadows, Boy and the Oscar-nominated short film Two Cars, One Night. He also executive produced through Piki Films, his production company with Carthew Neal, The Breaker Upperers, Baby Done and the first Indigenous Canadian/New Zealand coproduction, Night Raiders, which premiered at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival.Waititi’s recent film Next Goal Wins, which he wrote, directed and produced, based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, premiered in theaters in November 2023, following its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Waititi is also executive producer of Billy Luther’s film Frybread Face and Me, which premiered domestically at SXSW 2023 and internationally at TIFF 2023. Previously, Waititi was seen in Shawn Levy’s Free Guy from 20th Century Studios, alongside Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer and Joe Keery.Most recently, Waititi released the Apple TV+ series Time Bandits, a reimagining of the 1981 film directed by Terry Gilliam. Waititi co-created the series with Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris and served as an executive producer. Additional upcoming projects include Hulu’s Interior Chinatown, for which he directed the pilot and executive produced, as well as the film adaptation of Klara and the Sun.For television, Waititi stars as “Blackbeard” and serves as executive producer of the Max period comedy Our Flag Means Death, which premiered its second season in October 2023.Also for the small screen, Waititi is the co-creator and executive producer of FX’s Reservation Dogs, for which he co-wrote the first episode with co-creator Sterlin Harjo. The series, which premiered its third and final season in August 2023, won the 2021 Gotham Award for Short-Form Breakthrough Series, the 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best New Scripted Series and the 2022 and 2024 Peabody Awards in the Entertainment category, as well as earning nominations for 2022’s Critics Choice Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards, and most recently, a 2024 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. Additionally, Waititi directed the season one finale of The Mandalorian for Disney+, in which he also voices “IG-11,” and serves as executive producer on the critically acclaimed TV adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows, for which he’s directed several episodes.

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Taika Waititi is an Academy Award® and GRAMMY®-winning, Emmy®-nominated writer, director, actor and producer. 

Taika Waititi headshot wearing white shirt with a black suit jacket and gold chain necklace.

Taika Waititi | Executive Producer | What We Do in the Shadows on FX

What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi

Garrett Basch

Paul Simms

Jemaine Clement