Bazmark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann ( ; born Mark Anthony Luhrmann, 17 September 1962) is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor whose various projects extend from film and television into opera, theatre, music and the recording industries. He is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design and musical components of all his work. In Australia, he is the most commercially successful native director, and four of his films are in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films ever.
On the screen, he is best known for his Red Curtain Trilogy, comprising the romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom (1992) and the romantic tragedies William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001). Following the trilogy, projects included Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), Elvis (2022) and the television period drama The Get Down (2016) for Netflix. Additional projects include stage productions of Giacomo Puccini's La bohème for both Opera Australia and Broadway, and Strictly Ballroom the Musical (2014). In September 2025 his first documentary, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Luhrmann is known for his Grammy Award-nominated soundtracks for Moulin Rouge! and for The Great Gatsby, as well as his record label House of Iona, a co-venture with RCA Records. Serving as producer on all his musical soundtracks, he also holds writing credits on many of the individual tracks. His album Something for Everybody features music from many of his films and also includes his hit "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)".
Early and personal life Mark Anthony Luhrmann was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 17 September 1962. His mother, Barbara Carmel (), 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.
Career Film
After theatrical successes, including the short play Strictly Ballroom which premiered at the Wharf Theatre, Luhrmann moved into film. He made his directorial debut with the 1992 film version of Strictly Ballroom.
Luhrmann's modern film interpretation Romeo + Juliet (1996), based on the William Shakespeare play and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, defeated Titanic at the BAFTAs for best direction, music and screenplay. The film was celebrated at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was recognised with the Golden Bear award for direction and Silver Bear for DiCaprio's performance. Luhrmann also produced both volumes of the soundtrack album, which went triple-platinum.
Luhrmann's Academy Award-winning musical Moulin Rouge! (2001), set in the Montmartre quarter of Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, told the story of an English poet and writer, Christian (Ewan McGregor), who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan, Satine (Nicole Kidman). The film was praised by its adherents, including the musical directors Robert Wise and Stanley Donen, as having re-invented the modern musical, blending decades of popular music in remixes and mash-ups. The film was named one of the AFI's top ten films of 2001 and in 2010 was chosen as the top film of the 2000s decade in a poll of 150,000 respondents in the United Kingdom. At the 59th Annual Golden Globes, Moulin Rouge! took home the awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Actress and Best Original Score. The film also gave birth to a successful soundtrack album, produced by Luhrmann, which sold more than seven million copies and went double-platinum, led by the Grammy-winning number one hit single "Lady Marmalade".
Luhrmann's 2008 historical epic Australia featured some of the country's most celebrated actors, including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and David Gulpilil. Starting just befor World War II, the film blended a nostalgic romance with major events from Australian history, including the Bombing of Darwin, and the true story of the Stolen Generations, wherein thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children were stolen from their families by the state and forcibly integrated into white society. The movie's racial politics were controversial for their time, and notably, its production coincided with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Marcia Langton, a professor of Australian indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, publicly supported the film, saying "Luhrmann depicts with satirical sharpness the racial caste system of that time... In his imagined cinema of the 1940s, the spatial and social shape of racism is reconstructed with such exact detail, I felt I had been transported back to my own childhood." While achieving modest box office success in the United States, the film was very successful in Europe, maintaining the #1 slot at the box office for many weeks in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Scandinavian countries. It is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, next to Crocodile Dundee and ahead of Happy Feet.
In 2013 Luhrmann adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, shot in 3D, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, the Australian newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker, and Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim. For the film, Luhrmann and the costume/production designer Catherine Martin collaborated with Prada, Brooks Brothers and Tiffany & Co. to create period-inspired dresses, suits and jewellery based on their own archives and true to the book's own references to luxury brands. It grossed over $353 million worldwide, making it Luhrmann's highest-grossing film to date. The critic Richard Roeper described the adaptation as "the best attempt yet to capture the essence of the novel" while Fitzgerald's granddaughter praised it, saying "Scott would have been proud." The following year, at the 86th Academy Awards, the film won in both its nominated categories: Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. The soundtrack, produced by Luhrmann, Anton Monsted and Jay-Z, sought to blend the music of the Jazz Age with contemporary hip hop as two historical analogues. Featured artists included Lana Del Rey, Jack White, Sia, Beyoncé, will.i.am, The xx and Florence and the Machine; the soundtrack also included score from the film's composer and Luhrmann's repeat collaborator Craig Armstrong. The album marked the biggest digital sales week for a soundtrack in Billboard history at that time, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Luhrmann's next project was Elvis, a biopic about Elvis Presley focusing on his relationship with Colonel Tom Parker. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. Tom Hanks played Parker and Austin Butler portrayed Presley, having been cast after a series of screen tests, as well as music and performance workshops. The film opened in June 2022, becoming a box office hit and receiving eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Butler. In January 2023, Luhrmann signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures after working with the studio on Elvis.
In September 2024 it was reported that Luhrmann's next narrative feature film will be an adaption of the life of Joan of Arc, titled Jehanne d'Arc. The project was described as "The ultimate teenage girl coming of age story, set in the Hundred Years' War." He is co-writing this adaptation with playwright Ava Pickett.
Luhrmann's latest film is EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, a documentary and concert film featuring long-lost footage from his epochal residency in Las Vegas from 1969 into the 1970s, as well as previously unseen footage from Elvis: That's the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour uncovered during production of Luhrmann's Elvis biopic. It premiered on 6 September 2025 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Television
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%.
Filmography Director Film Year Title Director Writer Producer1992Strictly Ballroom1996Romeo + Juliet2001Moulin Rouge!2008Australia2013The Great Gatsby2022Elvis2025EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Television Year TitleCreator Director Writer Executiveproducer Notes2016–2017The Get DownDirected and co-wrote episode "Where There Is Ruin, There Is Hope for a Treasure"
Screen actor 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
Stage actor