Lee Tamahori Biography

Fast Facts

• Directed more than 100 TV commercials in New Zealand during a 10-year period starting in the mid-1980s
• Breakthrough feature was 1994's Once Were Warriors, the tale of a dysfunctional Maori family in New Zealand
• First Hollywood film was the 1996 neo-noir Mulholland Falls
• Directed the 20th James Bond movie, Die Another Day (2002), in which Tamahori was accused of including too many product placements
• In January 2006, was charged with solicitation of a prostitute after allegedly offering sex to an undercover Los Angeles police officer; pleaded no contest and received community service and three years probation
• After tackling more mainstream films, went back to directing an independent film with 2011's The Devil's Double, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival