Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich was born on November 10, 1955.

His films have grossed just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the country's 14th-highest grossing director of all time.

His most successful films have been disaster films, including "Independence Day." He plans to direct a sequel in the future.

Emmerich is openly gay and a financial supporter of U.S. progressive politics.

He has been nicknamed Das Spielbergle aus Sindelfingen which is German for "Little Spielberg from Sindelfingen." He also lists "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and "Earthquake" (1974) as his favorite films.

With "The Patriot" (2000), Emmerich took on a completely different genre. Starring Mel Gibson, the film was a period piece, depicting the American Revolution. It grossed over $130 million domestically, and was shown worldwide as well. Emmerich returned to sci-fi for his next screenplay, "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), which he also directed. Starring Dennis Quaid, the story revolves around a scientist who tries to save his son when the world is subjected to a new ice age

Emmerich began his career in his native Stuttgart, Germany. As a youth he pursued painting and sculpting. While in the director's program at film school in Munich, his student film, "The Noah's Ark Principle," went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. It would also become the highest budgeted film school examination film (DEM 1,000,000) in Germany. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries.

Emmerich subsequently formed his own production company, Centropolis Film Productions, and under its aegis, he produced his movies. His next film was "Making Contact" (a.k.a. Joey), about a boy suffering from his father's death who finds a way to communicate with him via his toys. The movie showcased the young filmmaker's vast knowledge of special effects and his propensity to use them.

His next film was" Ghost Chase," a comedy he co-wrote with Oliver Eberle about two young film fanatics and their struggle for success in Hollywood. Emmerich also served as producer on "Eye of the Storm," which starred Dennis Hopper. He went on to direct the futuristic action-adventure "Moon 44," which he co-wrote with Oliver Eberle, starring Michael Pare, Malcolm McDowell, Lisa Eichhorn and Dean Devlin.

Emmerich decided to remain with the sci-fi genre for his next four films, all of which became big money makers. First, he directed the 1992 action-adventure "Universal Soldier," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. He would then go on to helm 1994's epic science fiction adventure "StarGate," which he also co-wrote. In 1996 Emmerich would strike gold with the box office phenomenon Independence Day, which he directed, executive produced and co-wrote. He also directed, executive produced and co-wrote the big budget ($125 million) "Godzilla" (1998), which earned over $135 million at the domestic box office.

Emmerich owns homes in Los Angeles, Manhattan, London and Stuttgart. Emmerich likes to decorate his homes in a self-described "outlandish" manner, adorning them with rare Hollywood memorabilia, murals and portraits of dictators and Communist figures, and World War II-Militaria.