What movies has Taika Waititi directed, and which one made him a household name?

Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker who has built an impressive and distinctive body of work over the course of his career. His feature directorial debut was Eagle vs Shark in 2007, a quirky romantic comedy that drew comparisons to early Wes Anderson films and established his offbeat sensibility. He followed that with Boy in 2010, a coming-of-age story set in rural New Zealand in the 1980s that became the highest-grossing New Zealand film at the domestic box office at the time of its release. The film drew on Waititi's own experiences growing up and showcased his ability to blend humor with genuine emotional depth. In 2014 he released What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary about vampire flatmates living in Wellington, New Zealand, which he co-directed and co-wrote with Jemaine Clement. The film became a cult classic and spawned a successful television franchise, including a long-running FX series of the same name and a spinoff called Wellington Paranormal. Two years later in 2016 he released Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a heartwarming adventure comedy about a foster child and his reluctant guardian who become fugitives in the New Zealand bush. That film was enormously well received and broke box office records in New Zealand, further cementing his reputation as one of the most exciting filmmakers working in a distinctly personal comedic mode. The film that truly made Waititi a household name on a global scale was Thor Ragnarok in 2017, his entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was a radical departure from the previous Thor movies, injecting the franchise with irreverent humor, vibrant colors inspired by Jack Kirby's comic art, and a loose improvisational energy that felt completely unlike typical superhero blockbusters. It was a massive commercial and critical success, grossing over 850 million dollars worldwide, and audiences responded enthusiastically to its playful tone. Waititi also played the fan-favorite character Korg, a gentle rock creature, through motion capture and voice performance. The film introduced him to an enormous mainstream audience that may not have been familiar with his earlier independent work. After Ragnarok he directed Jojo Rabbit in 2019, a satirical comedy-drama set in Nazi Germany in which he also played a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler who serves as the imaginary friend of a young boy in the Hitler Youth. The film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making Waititi the first indigenous person to win an Oscar in that category, as he is of Maori descent. The film was polarizing for some due to its comedic treatment of such dark subject matter, but many praised it for its emotional sincerity and its ultimately anti-hate message. He returned to the MCU with Thor Love and Thunder in 2022, which received a more mixed critical reception than Ragnarok but was still a commercial success. He has also been attached to various other projects including a Star Wars film, though the status of that project has remained uncertain over the years. Throughout his career Waititi has maintained a recognizable voice that blends absurdist humor with genuine warmth and heart, making him one of the more distinctive filmmakers to emerge from the past two decades.