Lilly Wachowski

The younger half of the writing-directing-producing team known as The Wachowskis, Lilly Wachowski emerged alongside older sister Lana from the comic book world to direct "The Matrix" (1999), one of the most successful and influential film franchises of all time. Prior to "The Matrix," Wachowski entered Hollywood by way of co-writing "Assassins" (1995) for Richard Donner before co-directing the steamy neo-noir "Bound" (1995). That film paved the way for "The Matrix," which blended religion, philosophy, martial arts and science fiction into a highly popular film that had a considerable effect on the cultural landscape. The massive success of the film sparked a franchise that included animated shorts, video games and two sequels, "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) and "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003), both of which were big box office hits. She went on to co-direct the live-action version of the '60s animated TV series "Speed Racer" (2008), ambitious epic fantasy "Cloud Atlas" (2012), science fiction action-adventure "Jupiter Ascending" (2015), and futuristic TV thriller "Sense8" (Netflix 2015-17), before co-writing situation comedy "Work In Progress" (Showtime 2019- ). Throughout, she's maintained her status as one of Hollywood's most imaginative and inventive writer-directors. Born on Dec. 29. 1967 in Chicago, IL, Lilly Wachowski was raised by her father, Ron, a businessman and her mother, Lynne, a nurse and amateur painter. After graduating from Whitney Young High School, which had a noted performing arts curriculum, Wachowski studied at Emerson College in Boston before dropping out and breaking into the comic book scene. Eventually, The Wachowskis wrote issues of Clive Barker's Ectokid (1993-94) series for Marvel Comics' imprint Razorline, as well as Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1989-1992) and Clive Barker's Nightbreed (1990) for Epic Comics. The duo wrote and sold their first script to producer Dino De Laurentiis, which eventually became the action thriller "Assassins" (1995), starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas as rival hit men forced to work together.