Terry Gilliam Director

Terry Gilliam was born in Minneapolis and earned a degree in political science at Los Angeles’s Occidental College. Initially employed as a magazine illustrator, he also worked from time to time in an animation studio and as associate editor of Help! Magazine. In 1967, he moved to London. Two years later, together with Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, he created the famous comedy group Monty Python, of which he was the only American member. He also appeared and acted in the television series Monthy Python’s Flying Circus. He co-directed the group’s first film, The Holy Grail (1975) and he produced the short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance, which was presented as an opener to the troupe’s final film, The Meaning of Life (earning the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983). A number of other films would follow, including Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, Brazil (a surrealistic fable blending sarcastic humour and nightmarish visions, which received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King (Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, and winner of a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival), Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (presented in competition in Cannes in 1998), The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. His last full-length feature film, Zero Theorem, was presented in official selection at the Venice Film Festival in 2013. In 2011, he made his debut as an opera director with La Damnation de Faust at the English National Opera, followed by Benvenuto Cellini in 2014.

Terry Gilliam is directing his first production for the Paris Opera