Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson
Anderson in December 2007
Born	(1970-06-26) June 26, 1970 (age 46) Studio City, California, United States
Residence	San Fernando Valley, California
Nationality	American
Other names	P.T.A., P.T. Anderson
Education	Emerson College New York University
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1988–present
Partner(s)	Maya Rudolph (2001–present)
Children	4

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970) also known as P.T. Anderson, is an American filmmaker. Interested in film-making since a young age, Anderson was encouraged by his father to become a filmmaker.

In 1993, he wrote and directed a short film titled Cigarettes & Coffee on a budget of $20,000. After he attended the Sundance Institute, Anderson had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first feature film, a neo-noir crime thriller titled Hard Eight, in 1996. Anderson received critical and commercial success for his film Boogie Nights (1997), set during the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s and 1980s. His third feature, Magnolia (1999), takes place over a single day in the San Fernando Valley, following the interconnected lives of several characters in search of happiness and resolution. It received strongly positive reviews despite struggling at the box office. In 2002, the romantic comedy-drama Punch-Drunk Love, Anderson's fourth feature, was released to generally favorable reviews.

The epic drama There Will Be Blood (2007), set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, centers on a silver miner's efforts to capitalize on the Southern California oil boom. Released after a five-year absence, it garnered wide acclaim from critics. Anderson's sixth film, the drama The Master, was released to critical acclaim. His seventh film, the crime comedy-drama Inherent Vice, based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon, was released in 2014, to general acclaim. His eighth film, Junun, is a documentary about the making of an album of the same name.