Eli Roth burst onto the film scene at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival with his directorial debut, Cabin Fever, which ignited a seven-studio bidding war and became Lionsgate’s highest-grossing film of 2003. He followed with Hostel, a film he wrote, produced, and directed, with Quentin Tarantino serving as executive producer. The film earned critical acclaim and became a global box-office success, earning $80 million at the box-office on a $4 million budget, and spawning the sequel Hostel Part II, also written and directed by Roth. 

Roth co-wrote, produced, and directed Knock Knock (2015), starring Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas in her English-language debut; the cannibal thriller The Green Inferno; the critically acclaimed and #1 box-office hit The House with a Clock in Its Walls with Cate Blanchett and Jack Black for Amblin; and the gritty action film Death Wish, starring Bruce Willis for MGM. In 2023 he co-wrote, produced, and directed the critical and box-office hit Thanksgiving, based on his cult faux trailer, released by Sony pictures, and directed Blanchett alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Hart in the video game adaptation, Borderlands. 

As an actor, Roth portrayed the iconic Sgt. Donny Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, earning a Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics Choice award. He also acted as the fast-talking Live Nation CEO in Sam Levinson’s HBO series “The Idol” and will soon appear alongside Vanessa Kirby in Night Always Comes, slated for release in August on Netflix. 

In early 2025, Roth launched The Horror Section, an independent studio dedicated to making and theatrically distributing unrated, no-holds-barred horror films for theatrical release globally. The studio’s first release, Joe Begos’ alien splatterfest Jimmy and Stiggs, which Bloody Disgusting described as “Begos’ answer to Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead,” will open in theaters nationwide in August 2025.