Baz Luhrmann

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Baz Luhrmann studied at National Institute of Dramatic Art and St Paul's Catholic College, Manly. The recorded working language is English. Works named in the authority record are Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Elvis and The Great Gatsby. Work by Baz Luhrmann is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art and Harvard Film Archive. Distinctions recorded are European Film Award for Best Non-European Film, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Direction and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

• Name — Baz Luhrmann • Birth Name — Mark Anthony Luhrmann • Born — 17 September 1962 • Birthplace — Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Occupation — * Film director • film producer • screenwriter • actor • Years Active — 1982–present • Awards — Full list • Children — 2 • Education — National Institute of Dramatic Art (BFA) • Website — bazmark.com

Mark Anthony Luhrmann was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 17 September 1962. His mother, Barbara Carmel (Brennan), was a ballroom dance teacher and dress shop owner, and his father, Leonard Luhrmann, ran a petrol station and a cinema. He was raised in Herons Creek, a tiny rural settlement in mid-northern New South Wales. He attended St Joseph's Hastings Regional School, Port Macquarie (1975–1978); St Paul's Catholic College, performing in the school's version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1; and Narrabeen Sports High School, where he met his future collaborator Craig Pearce. Luhrmann received the nickname "Baz" at school, given to him because of his hairstyle, the name coming from the puppet character Basil Brush. While still in high school, Luhrmann changed his name by deed poll to Bazmark, joining his nickname and birth name together. In 1980 Luhrmann graduated from high school, and in the same year was cast opposite Judy Davis in the Australian film Winter of Our Dreams. In 1982, using the money he had earned from film and television work, he co-founded, with Nell Schofield, Gabrielle Mason, and Julia Little, their own theatre company, The Bond Theatre Company. The four had recently been turned down by NIDA. In March the company performed American Days at the pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach. At the same time, he conceived and appeared in a controversial television documentary, Kids of the Cross, where Luhrmann, embedded as a character, lived with a group of street kids. In 1983 he enrolled in an acting course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1985 alongside Sonia Todd, Catherine McClements and Justin Monjo. On 26 January 1997 he married Catherine Martin, a production designer, costume designer and film producer; the couple have two children. When asked in interviews about his sexuality, Luhrmann has said that he sees all sexual possibilities. Luhrmann supports the Melbourne Demons in the Australian Football League.

• Illustration — Luhrmann at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival In 2016 Luhrmann collaborated with the playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis on the Netflix series The Get Down about the birth of hip hop in the 1970s. For the series, Luhrmann brought on Nas, Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and DJ Kool Herc as producers, to help to tell the story of the rise of hip hop, punk, and disco during shifting cultural and political transformation through his unique brand of magical realism. The series featured two parts, praised for its vibrant music, fresh cast and authenticity, due to the involvement of many of the era's key historical figures in central roles to the show's development. Part One got a score of 77% from the online review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, while Part Two holds a critic score of 86%.

Film • Year — Title — Director — Writer — Producer • 1992 — Strictly Ballroom • 1996 — Romeo + Juliet • 2001 — Moulin Rouge! • 2008 — Australia • 2013 — The Great Gatsby • 2022 — Elvis • 2025 — EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert Television • Year — Title — Creator — Director — Writer — Executive producer — Notes • 2016–2017 — The Get Down — Directed and co-wrote episode "Where There Is Ruin, There Is Hope for a Treasure"

Television • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1981–82 — A Country Practice — Jerry Percival — 6 episodes • 1983 — Kids of the Cross — Himself — Documentary film • 2023 — Agent Elvis — The Director (voice) — Episode: "Cocaine Tuesdays" Film • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1981 — Winter of Our Dreams — Pete • 1982 — The Dark Room — First student • The Highest Honor — Able Seaman A. W. Huston • 2013 — The Great Gatsby — Waiter — Uncredited

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1982 — American Days — Gary — Performed at Bondi Pavillon, Sydney • 1982 — Are You Lonesome Tonight? — Unknown — Performed at Nimrod Downstairs, Sydney • 1983 — Fanshen — Peasant — Performed at NIDA, Sydney • 1984 — Holiday Makers — Unknown — Performed at NIDA • All's Well That Ends Well — Dumain Brother • 1984, 1986 — Strictly Ballroom — Ross Pierce — Also director, Performed at NIDA in 1984, and in Bratislava in 1986 • 1985 — Dreamplay — Unknown — Performed at NIDA. Directed by Jim Sharman • Funeral Games — Part of the Hallucinogenics? 3 plays from the 60s event. Performed at NIDA • Chamber Music • The Greeks — Trilogy: The War, The Murders, The Gods. Performed at NIDA, and St Martin's Youth Arts Centre, Melbourne. • Once in a Lifetime — Performed at NIDA • 1986 — Crocodile Creek — – — Directed for the New Moon Theatre Company in Rockhampton. Amateur musical production set in the Queensland goldfields • 1989 — The Conquest of the South Pole — Unknown — Performed at Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney

Luhrmann, who started appearing on TV screen in 1981, appeared in Winter of Our Dreams, directed by John Duigan. By 1992, he had directed the music video "Love Is in the Air" by John Paul Young. The next year, Luhrmann staged his interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten. In 1997 when the CD of Something for Everybody was released, it featured Luhrmann's films and operas. Following the success, he created and managed a company Bazmark along with his wife, Catherine Martin. In 1997 as a music producer, Luhrmann was credited on "Everybody's Free", a spoken word song in Europe, Australia and the Americas. Luhrmann directed a 2004 commercial for Chanel N° 5 entitled N° 5 the Film. On Charlie Rose interview, he told Rose that the commercial was based on the 1953 film, Roman Holiday. The next year 2005, Luhrmann was appointed an Ambassador for the Australian Theatre for Young People, and in next three years, he was asked by the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd to make adverts for the promotion of tourism in Australia. In 2009 during the 81st Academy Awards in February, Luhrmann put together a number dedicated to musicals which consisted of Hugh Jackman, Beyoncé, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried. In September of same year, he appeared as a guest judge on Dancing with the Stars. He produced Christina Aguilera and Nile Rodgers' 2016 single "Telepathy", along with Elliott Wheeler. Luhrmann and the painter Vincent Fantauzzo embarked on an art initiative which took them to India, where they created artworks on walls of hotels, in the streets of Rajasthan and on 17th-century forts in 2010. He also shot the campaign film The Secret Life of Flowers. Though mostly hands-off with the stage production of Moulin Rouge!, Luhrmann produced its Broadway cast recording in 2019. Luhrmann led the jury at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In January 2025, Luhrmann collaborated with wife Catherine Martin and Jon Neidich of Golden Age Hospitality on Monsieur, a new bar in New York City's East Village with a gothic medieval aesthetic, inspired by the East Village nightlife in the late 1960s and early 70s. In 2025 the couple has designed the private carriage Celia for the Belmond British Pullman luxury train, rebuilt from a former Brighton Belle motorcar, which has entered service in April 2026. The vehicle features a capacity of 12 passengers, a bar, a dining and a lounge area.

• In September 2009, Luhrmann made an appearance as a guest judge on Dancing with the Stars. Luhrmann participated on the NPR radio quiz program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in 2013. • Luhrmann's song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" was discussed in March 2020 on the BBC Radio 5 Live Chiles on Friday programme with Charlotte McDonald. It featured an interview from the documentary with Australian voice over artist, Lee Perry.

In 2022, the writers of the Israeli satirical TV program The Jews Are Coming made a tribute in Hebrew to Luhrmann's version of "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" with Moses standing before the Israelites and quoting the Ten Commandments with the background music from "Sunscreen" and several parts closely translated from Luhrmann's text, such as getting to know your parents before they disappear.

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