Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

Since then, Tarantino has helmed several critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015).

Daniella Pick (28 November 2018 - present)

Trivia

Was sued by Don Murphy for $5,000,000, accused of assault. Tarantino attacked Murphy in restaurant, slammed him against the wall and punched him. [November 1997]
Together with Lawrence Bender founded record company called A Band Apart Records. It will focus on film soundtracks and its releases will be distributed through Maverick Records, owned by Madonna. [July 1997]
Was planning to direct an episode of The X-Files (1993) but refused to join the Director's Guild of America. The Guild refused his request for a waiver so that he could direct the series. [November 1996]
Claims that Tarantino acted in the film Dawn of the Dead (1978) or the film King Lear (1987) are incorrect. Quentin falsely listed these credits years ago on his acting resume to compensate for his lack of experience and these incorrect credits have subsequently been attributed to him in such places as Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide and the Cinemania CD ROM.
First noted screenplay was titled "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit", which was written in 1985.
Collects old board games having to do with television series like I Dream of Jeannie (1965), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), The A-Team (1983), etc.
In all of his original screenplays, the name of a police detective named Scagnetti is referred to at least once. Most of the times, the particular scene was cut out of the final versions.
He was an unlisted screenwriter for Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995). He was brought in to punch up the script's dialogue, reportedly adding the Silver Surfer scene, submarine movie scene, racist horse monologue among other polishes.
He delayed production of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) for several months when Uma Thurman became pregnant. He refused to recast her, as he had written the role specifically for her, based on an idea the two conceived on the set of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Is a huge fan of The Three Stooges.
His parents are Tony Tarantino and Connie McHugh. His father is from New York, and Quentin's paternal grandparents, Dominic James Tarantino and Elizabeth Jean Salvaggio, had Italian ancestry. Quentin's mother was born in LaFollette, Tennessee, to Edwin William McHugh and Betty June Woody, was raised in Ohio, and has English and Irish ancestry.
Although he uses both elements in his films, he strongly detests violence and drugs.
Is listed in the acknowledgments of actor Ethan Hawke's novel, "Ash Wednesday".
Two of Tarantino's favorite films are Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) (which he owns a 35mm copy of) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which he references in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).
President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 57th Cannes International Film Festival in 2004.
He considers Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) one of the finest Westerns ever made, even writing an extensive article about it for Sight & Sound magazine titled A Rare Sorrow. The article was featured in the Pulp Fiction (1994) Special Edition DVD as an extra and also appears in Paul A. Woods' Film Geek Files (pgs. 129-132). Interestingly, the director of Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman, was the executive producer of Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Personal Quotes 

[at the MTV Movie Awards 1994 as he won Best Picture for Pulp Fiction (1994)] Pop quiz, hotshot: you go to the awards ceremonies all year long; you keep losing to Forrest Gump (1994)! It's really annoying the hell out of you - what do you do? You go to the MTV Awards!
[on "rival" director Guy Ritchie marrying Madonna] I guess I'll have to marry Elvis Presley to get even.
If I've made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I've accomplished something.
When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, "No, I went to films".
[on using surfing music, when hating the surfing culture] It's like surf music, I've always like loved that but, for me, I don't know what surf music has to do with surf boards. To me, it just sounds like rock and roll, even Morricone music. It sounds like rock and roll Spaghetti Western music, so that's how I kind of laid it in.
Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I'm lucky enough to be in the position where I don't make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.
[on the comparison between Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)'s group fight and Neo vs. 100 Agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)] First off, I've always thought of the black suits as mine, so I don't think of them as Agent Smiths, I think of them as Reservoir Dogs with less cool sunglasses. The similarities between the fight sequences never occurred to me until I had a director's screening and Luc Besson turned up with Keanu Reeves as his guest. I watched Keanu watching and suddenly I felt it.
[on media criticisms of violence in his movies] Sure, Kill Bill is a violent movie. But it's a Tarantino movie. You don't go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down.
[on media criticisms of violence in his movies] What if a kid goes to school after seeing Kill Bill and starts slicing up other kids? You know, I'll take that chance! Violent films don't turn children into violent people. They may turn them into violent filmmakers but that's another matter altogether.
[on collecting movies] If you're a film fan, collecting video is sort of like marijuana. Laser discs, they're definitely cocaine. Film prints are heroin, all right? You're shooting smack when you start collecting film prints. So I kinda got into it in a big way, and I've got a pretty nice collection I'm real proud of.
[on how to take the violence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) (The final duel with Lucy Liu)] It's supposed to be kind of amusing and poetic at the same time. And also just a teeny-tiny bit solemn. When you see her head, it's funny. And then her line, "That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword," that's funny. But then, the next shot is not funny, when she tips over and Meiko Kaji is singing about revenge on the soundtrack. So it's all together. Funny. Solemn. Beautiful. Gross. All at the same time.
[on becoming famous] Going into a video store and going through the videos, looking at every title they have, trying to find some old Spaghetti Western, that's gone.
I have an idea for a Godzilla movie that I've always wanted to do. The whole idea of Godzilla's role in Tokyo, where he's always battling these other monsters, saving humanity time and again - wouldn't Godzilla become God? It would be called Living Under the Rule of Godzilla. This is what society is like when a big fucking green lizard rules your world.