Robert Rodriguez Biography

Fast Facts

• As a teenager, wrote and drew a comic strip based on his siblings called "Los Hooligans," which ran for three years in the University of Texas' Daily Texan newspaper
• Partially funded his first full-length film, the Spanish-language crime movie El Mariachi, with $7,000 he earned as a hospital test subject for a cholesterol drug
• Mariachi sequel Desperado was nominated for the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival's Golden Palm Award for Best Film
• Wrote a memoir called Rebel Without a Crew (1996), which details his experiences making El Mariachi and his advice to aspiring filmmakers
• Won Outstanding Director—Motion Picture at the 2001 ALMA Awards for the action movie Spy Kids, which grossed more than $100 million in the U
• S
• alone
• The DVDs of his movies usually include a special feature called "10-Minute Film School," in which Rodriguez discusses an aspect of low-budget filmmaking