Alex de la Iglesia is a Spanish film director born in 1965 in Bilbao, Spain. He studied at Deusto University and began his career as a cartoonist at age 10. His first film, Acción Mutante, was released in 1993 with help from Pedro Almodóvar and was a science fiction film. Some of his other notable films include El día de la bestia, Perdita Durango, Muertos de risa, and La comunidad. Throughout his career, de la Iglesia has won several Goya Awards and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Since 2009, he has served as president of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences.