David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor, born in Toronto in 1943, and the filmmaker most closely identified with body horror. After studying English at the University of Toronto and making early experimental features such as Stereo and Crimes of the Future, he built a reputation in the 1970s and 1980s with Shivers, Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly, films that treat disease, mutation and technology as forces that remake the human body. He later moved into dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster pictures, including A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, often working with the actor Viggo Mortensen. Seven of his films have competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and his work has drawn both strong critical praise and controversy for its depiction of violence.