Eli Roth

Eli Roth is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for work in horror cinema. Born Eli Raphael Roth on April 18, 1972, in Newton, Massachusetts, he developed an early interest in filmmaking after seeing Ridley Scott's Alien and began making short films as a child. He later studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where his student film Restaurant Dogs, an homage to Reservoir Dogs, won recognition in the Student Academy Awards program.

Before directing features, Roth worked in several entry-level and creative positions around film and television production, including work connected to Howard Stern's Private Parts and early animation projects. His first widely released feature as director was Cabin Fever, a low-budget horror film co-written with Randy Pearlstein. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, was acquired by Lionsgate and became a commercial success. Its mix of body horror, dark comedy and independent production helped make Roth a prominent figure in early-2000s American horror.

Roth's second feature, Hostel, opened at number one at the U.S. box office in 2006 and became one of his signature works. The film's graphic violence and travel-horror premise made it controversial and commercially successful, and Roth followed it with Hostel: Part II. During this period, journalists often grouped him with other filmmakers under the label Splat Pack, a term used for directors associated with explicit, bloody horror in the 2000s.