On July 30, 1970, he was born in London. Edward is his middle name.¹⁾

Brendan James Nolan, his English father, was an advertising executive, while Christina, his American mother, worked as a flight attendant and English teacher.²⁾

He spent his upbringing in both London and Chicago, and he holds dual British and American citizenship.³⁾

At the age of seven, he began making films by stealing his father's Super 8 camera and shooting short films with his action figures.⁴⁾

Growing up, Nolan was a huge fan of Star Wars (1977), and when he was eight years old, he created a stop motion animated imitation called Space Wars.⁵⁾

His uncle, who worked at NASA and designed guidance systems for Apollo rockets, provided him some launch film. “I re-shot them off the screen and edited them in, hoping no one would notice,” Nolan later explained.⁶⁾

He wanted to be a professional filmmaker since he was 11 years old. When Nolan's family moved to Chicago during his adolescence, he began creating films with Adrien and Roko Belic.⁷⁾

He has continued to work with the brothers, and was given credit for his editorial services for their Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues (1999).⁸⁾

In the early 1990s, Christopher Nolan collaborated with Roko (and future Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Gettleman) on recording a safari through four African nations planned by the late photojournalist Dan Eldon.⁹⁾

Christopher Nolan attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College, both independent schools in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, and went on to study English literature at University College London (UCL).¹⁰⁾

Christopher Nolan was president of the Union's Film Society, and he exhibited 35 mm feature films with Emma Thomas (his lover and future producer) during the academic year and utilized the money generated to develop 16 mm films over the summers.¹¹⁾

Nolan created two short films during his undergraduate years. Tarantella (1989), a surreal 8 mm film, was the first to be screened on Image Union (an independent film and video showcase on the Public Broadcasting Service).¹²⁾

The second was Larceny (1995), filmed over a weekend in black and white with a limited cast, crew, and equipment. Funded by Nolan and shot with the society’s equipment, it appeared at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is considered one of UCL’s best shorts.¹³⁾

Nolan directed his debut picture, Following, in 1998, which he independently funded and shot with friends. Following follows a jobless young writer (Jeremy Theobald) who follows people across London in the hopes of gathering material for his first novel, but becomes entangled in a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance. Nolan was motivated to make the film after having his flat burgled while living in London.¹⁴⁾

Following's success provided Nolan with the opportunity to produce his breakout smash Memento (2000).¹⁵⁾