Álex de la Iglesia was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1965. At age ten he was drawing comics, and he acknowledges Alex Raymond (creator of Flash Gordon), Stan Lee (founder of Marvel Comics and creator of Spider-Man and The Hulk), as his spiritual fathers. Wishing to widen his knowledge, he studied at the University of Deusto, a private college in his home town, where, according to him, he spent most of the time at a local bar and in the school's film society. Determined to join the world of show business, he worked as a decorator for TV and was art director in Enrique Urbizu's film Todo por la pasta (1991). From then on, things happened very quickly, and he began directing films. He directed his first and only short film, Mirindas asesinas (1990), in collaboration with Jorge Guerricaechevarría as co-writer, a man who became Iglesia's regular writing partner on all of his future films (up to the present 2021). The short won prizes at many festivals, plus it served to convince legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, through his producing company, El Deseo, to sponsor Iglesia's first feature film, Acción mutante (1993). This malicious science fiction comedy with a revolutionary message was awarded two prizes at the Montréal Fantasia Film Festival and three Goya awards (the Spanish equivalent of the US Academy awards), turning the director into the most promising filmmaker of the year. His second film, El día de la bestia (1995), won six Goyas, including Best Director. It also received prizes at the first Gérardmer (France) Fantastic Film Festival and the Brussels Fantastic Film Festival, and it obtained the unanimous praise of critics and public at the international film festivals of Venice and Toronto, and the Sitges Catalonia Fantastic Film Festival. It then went on to become a big box office hit. Perdita Durango (1997) was his third feature film, the second to be produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez after the overwhelming success of "El Día de la Bestia". The drama, based on the true story of a Mexican sex torture cannibal voodoo cult, was co-written by its original novelist Barry Gifford, based on actual events, and the title character had been featured in Gifford's previous novel, also made into a feature film by David Lynch: Wild at Heart (1990). Muertos de risa (1999), and the accumulator of numerous Goya and other prizes and nominations, La comunidad (2000), were a turning point in his skyrocketing career. From then on he became his own producer, beginning with 800 balas (2002) through his Pánico Films company. This latter film was an unprecedented basque-style western, shot in Almería, Spain, starring an iconic Sancho Gracia. Crimen Ferpecto (2004) was a return to the black humor that, for many critics, captured the essence of the best of Iglesia, a filmmaker who is respected and admired worldwide.