Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhɛɐ̯tsoːk]; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films. Herzog started work on his first film Herakles in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas. French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive." American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. Description above from the Wikipedia article Werner Herzog, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

• 2026Al borde del abismo: la aventura peruana de Werner Herzog
• 2026Bucking Fastard — Writer, Director, Producer
• 2026Ghost Elephants — Self - Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Producer, Screenplay
• 2025Felicidad — Producer
• 2025Mi casa amarilla — Consulting Editor
• 2025Reeling — Executive Producer
• 2025Sirena
• 2024About a Hero
• 2024Orion and the Dark — Narrator (voice)
• 2024The End — Executive Producer
• 2024The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• 2024Theater of Thought — Director, Executive Producer, Screenplay
• 2023The Arc of Oblivion — Narrator (voice), Executive Producer
• 2022El Poso — Producer
• 2022Flores del precipicio — Producer
• 2022Last Exit: Space — Narrator (voice), Executive Producer
• 2022Notes from a Dromedary — Creative Consultant
• 2020AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A. — (archive footage)
• 2020Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema) — Narrator (voice)
• 2020Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds — Self - Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• 2020The AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault — (archive footage)
• 2020The Andinist — The Painter (Narrator)
• 2019Family Romance, LLC — Writer, Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator
• 2019Love Birds — Consulting Producer
• 2019Meeting Gorbachev — Self, Director, Writer
• 2019Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — Self - Interviewer and Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• 2019The Last Scene — Executive Producer
• The Mandalorian — The Client
• 2018Paradox Bullets — Narrator (voice)
• 2018The Empty Goal — Thanks
• 2018The Golden Gate — Executive Producer
• 2018The whole world is country — Consulting Producer
• 2017A Gray State — Executive Producer
• 2016Into the Inferno — Self, Director, Writer
• 2016Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World — Self, Director, Producer, Writer
• 2016Salt and Fire — Man with One Story (uncredited), Writer, Producer, Director
• 2016The Blimp-Maker — Thanks
• 2015Freaks of Nature — Perfect Being (voice)
• 2015Queen of the Desert — Director, Writer
• 2015Red Army — Executive Producer
• 2014Lemonade War — Neighborhood Hero
• 2014Penguins of Madagascar — Documentary Filmmaker (voice)
• 2014The Look of Silence — Executive Producer
• 2013From One Second to the Next — Director
• 2013Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision — Alexander von Humboldt
• Rick and Morty — Shrimply Pibbles (voice)
• 2013The Last Shepherd — Thanks
• 2012Dinotasia — Narrator (voice)
• 2012Jack Reacher — Zec Chelovek
• On Death Row — Werner Herzog, Writer, Director, Creator
• 2012Strawberryfields — Turnlehrer
• 2012The Act of Killing — Executive Producer
• 2012The Killers: Unstaged — Self, Director
• 2011Into the Abyss — Narrator (voice), Writer, Director, Producer
• 2011Ode to the Dawn of Man — Director, Cinematography, Sound
• 2010A Night Out — Thanks, Technical Advisor
• 2010Cave of Forgotten Dreams — Narrator (voice), Screenplay, Director
• 2010Happy People: A Year in the Taiga — Narrator (voice), Executive Producer, Writer, Director
• 2010My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done — Screenplay, Director
• 2010When Herzog Rescued Phoenix — Narrator (voice)
• 2009Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans — Director
• 2009La Bohème — Director
• Parks and Recreation — Keg Jennings
• 2009Plastic Bag — Plastic Bag (voice)
• 2009The Lonely
• 2008BLAST! — Narrator (voice)
• 2008Encounters at the End of the World — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Sound
• 2008Lohengrin: Bayreuth Festival Opera — Stage Director
• 2008Mister Lonely — Father Umbrillo
• 2007All In This Tea
• 2007Rescue Dawn — Director, Author
• 2007The Devil's Muse — Creative Consultant
• 2007The Grand — The German
• Metalocalypse
• The Henry Rollins Show
• American Dad! — Werner Herzog (voice)
• 2005Grizzly Man — Self / Narrator (voice), Director
• The Colbert Report
• 2005The Wild Blue Yonder — Screenplay, Director
• 2005What Is It? — Thanks
• 2004Incident at Loch Ness — Self, Producer
• 2004The White Diamond — Narrator (voice), Director, Screenplay
• 2003Wheel of Time — Narrator (voice), Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
• 2002Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet — Writer, Director
• 2002Ten Thousand Years Older — Director, Screenplay
• 2001Invincible — Writer, Director, Producer
• 2001Pilgrimage — Director
• 2000Tannhäuser — Stage Director
• 2000 Years of Christianity — Director
• 1999Julien Donkey-Boy — Father
• 1999My Best Fiend — Self, Writer, Director
• 1999Wings of Hope — Self, Director, Writer
• 1998What Dreams May Come — Face
• 1997Little Dieter Needs to Fly — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• Storyville
• 1996The Transformation of the World Into Music — Self, Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• 1995Burning Heart
• 1995Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Producer
• 1993Bells from the Deep — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• 1992La Donna del Lago — Director
• 1992Lessons of Darkness — Self - Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• Film Lesson — Self, Director
• 1991Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur — Narrator (voice), Screenplay, Director, Producer
• 1991Scream of Stone — TV-Regisseur, Director
• 1990Echoes from a Sombre Empire — Self, Director, Writer, Producer
• 1990Hard to Be a God — Mita / Richard
• 1989Bride of the Orient — Businger
• 1989Giovanna d'Arco — Director
• The Simpsons — Walter Hotenhoffer (voice), Werner Herzog (voice), Dr. Lund (voice)
• Under the Sun — Director
• 1989Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Co-Producer
• 1988The French as Seen by… — Director
• 1988The Gauls — Director
• 1987Cobra Verde — Director, Screenplay
• 1987Location Africa — Self, Producer
• 1986Portrait: Werner Herzog — Self, Director, Writer
• 1985The Dark Glow of the Mountains — Self (voice), Director, Producer, Writer
• 1984Ballad of the Little Soldier — Self (voice), Writer, Director, Producer
• 1984Where the Green Ants Dream — Lawyer (uncredited), Director, Producer, Writer
• 1983God's Angry Man — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer
• 1983Huie's Sermon — Director
• 1983Man of Flowers — The Father
• 1982Fitzcarraldo — Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 1980Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe — Self, Writer
• 1979Nosferatu the Vampyre — Director, Producer, Writer
• 1979Woyzeck — Screenplay, Director
• The South Bank Show
• 1977La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe — Narrator (voice), Director, Sound Engineer, Producer
• 1977Stroszek — Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 1976Heart of Glass — Glass Transporter, Writer, Director, Producer
• 1976How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck — Self, Director, Producer, Sound
• 1976No One Will Play with Me — Director, Writer
• 1974Tales of the Dumpster Kid — Hurenmörder
• 1974The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser — Producer, Director, Screenplay
• 1974The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner — Self, Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 1972Aguirre, the Wrath of God — Producer, Director, Writer
• 1972Fata Morgana — Director, Screenplay, Sound, Producer
• 1971Even Dwarfs Started Small — Producer, Screenplay, Director
• 1971Handicapped Future — Interviewer (voice) (uncredited), Director, Sound Recordist, Producer, Writer
• 1971Land of Silence and Darkness — Screenplay, Director, Producer, Sound Recordist
• 1970The Flying Doctors of East Africa — Director, Writer, Sound Recordist, Producer
• 1969Precautions Against Fanatics — Director, Producer, Writer, Sound
• 1968Die Erben von Papas Kino
• 1968Last Words — Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 1968Signs of Life — Soldier (uncredited), Writer, Director, Producer
• 1967Neuer Deutscher Film Report
• 1967The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz — Director, Editor, Screenplay
• 1962Herakles — Director, Editor, Sound, Screenplay, Producer
• Ally — (voice)
• The Twilight World — Director, Novel
• The hunger in the world explained to my son — Writer

Appearances as themselves (106)

• Hulk Hogan: Real American — Self
• Soccer Meets America — Self
• 2024Celebrating the Rice Media Center — Self (archival footage)
• 2022Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire — Self (archive footage)
• 2022Tegoyo — Self (Voice)
• 2022Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer — Self
• 2021A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner — Self
• 2021Hannelore Elsner: More Than One Life — Self (archive footage)
• 2021Meteor: Sohrab Shahid Saless — Self
• 2021The Extravagant Little Life of Jean-Claude D. Dreyfus — Self (archive footage)
• Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian — Self - The Client
• Wim Wenders - Von Filmen und Träumen — Self
• 2020Wim Wenders, Desperado — Self
• 201990 Years of the Music Box Theatre — Self
• 2019Jihad in Hollywood — Self
• 2019Tattoo Uprising — Self
• 2018Film Beyond Cinema: The Dumpster Kid Experiment and Other Utopias — Self
• 2018I'm a Soldier — Self
• 2018Manaslu: Mountain of Souls — Self
• 2018The Great Buster: A Celebration — Self
• 2017Ballad of a Righteous Merchant — Self
• 2017One Hundred Years with Juan Rulfo — Self
• 2017The Man Who Killed John Wayne — Self (archive footage)
• 2017Werner We Love You — Self
• 2016Jihad in Hollywood — Self
• Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter — Self
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Self - Guest
• 2014Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance — Self (archive footage)
• 2014Atari: Game Over — Self (archival)
• Late Night with Seth Meyers — Self - Guest
• 2014Life Itself — Self - Filmmaker
• 2014Werner Herzog: On Death Row and Life as a Director — Self
• 2013An Appreciation of Les Blank by Werner Herzog — Self
• 2013Jack Reacher: When the Man Comes Around — Self
• 2013Mistaken for Strangers — Self (uncredited)
• 2013The Unbelievers — Self
• 2013Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on 'The Act of Killing' — Self
• 201210 Questions for Werner Herzog — Self
• 2012Close Up — Self (archive footage)
• 2012Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections — Self
• 2012No Mr. Werner Herzog, this isn't your Cinématon — Self
• 2011Champions: A Comic Tale — Self
• 2011Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood — Self
• 2011I, I, I José Lewgoy — Self
• 2011On Borrowed Time — Self
• 2010Anyone who dares will take the cold off their horse — Self
• 2010Behind the Madness: The Making of My Son, My Son — Self
• 2010I am My Films, Part 2... 30 Years Later — Self
• 2010Into the Night With Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noe — Self
• 2010The Making of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans — Himself
• 2010Werner Herzog Defends Dade — Self
• 200840 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight — Self
• 2008Back to Room 666 — Self (archive footage)
• 2008Bierbichler — Self
• 2008Capturing Reality — Self
• 2008Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers — Self
• 2007Making of a True Story: Rescue Dawn — Self
• 2007Munich (Filmfest) Stories - 25 years of Munich Filmfest — Self
• 2007Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema — Self
• 200650 Films to See Before You Die — Self
• 2006Walking to Werner — Self (voice)
• 2005Dreams and Burdens — Self
• 2005In the Edges: The 'Grizzly Man' Session — Self
• 2005Perpetuum Mobile: Voices in the Blue Space — Self
• 2005Q & A with Jana Sevcikova and Werner Herzog — Self
• The Boondocks — Himself (voice)
• 2004Dribble — Self (voice)
• Kulturplatz — Self
• 2004The Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 3 — Self (voice) ("Dribble" short)
• 2002The Boxing Prince — Self
• 2001The 100 Greatest Films — Self
• 2000Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor — Self
• 2000The Ball Is a Scumbag — Self
• 2000The Last Documentary — Self
• 1999A Brief History of Errol Morris — Self
• 1999In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — Self
• Sternstunde Philosophie — Self
• 1996Stardust Stricken: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, A Portrait — Self
• Die Harald Schmidt Show — Self
• Placido Domingo's Tales from the Opera — Self - Director
• 1993Dangerous Game — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1991SnowwhiteRosered — Self
• 1990Russian Adventure. Peter Fleischmann is Filming "Hard to Be a God" — Self
• 1989The Heart and the Legs — Self
• 1989To the End of the World... and Then a Little Bit Further — Self
• 1985Room 666 — Self
• Sonntagsgespräch — Self
• 1985Tokyo-Ga — Self
• 1982Burden of Dreams — Self - Filmmaker
• 1980Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers — Self - Film Director: Nosferatu
• Bavarian Film Awards — Self
• 1979I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog — Self
• Okay — Self
• 1979Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie' — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1979The Making of 'Nosferatu' — Self
• Ciné regards — Self
• 1977Journey Through History — Self
• 1976Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema — Self
• 1975Lost in the Garden of the World — Self
• Midi Première — Self
• Spécial cinéma — Self
• 60 Minutes — Self
• Grimme Award — Self
• German Film Award — Self
• Jösta Hagelbäck & Werner Herzog — Self
• Shards of Cinema and Philosophy — Self