'Oppenheimer' director Christopher Nolan and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, met in university
Eight-time Oscar-nominated director Christopher Nolan and his wife, three-time Oscar-nominated producer Emma Thomas, are partners in marriage, parenting and filmmaking.
Nolan met Thomas while living in the same residence hall at the University College London (UCL), where he studied English literature, and she studied ancient history in 1989. The couple married in 1997, and Thomas has produced every feature film Nolan has directed from Following in 1998 to the Best Picture winning Oppenheimer in 2023.
The pair have four children together: Flora, Oliver, Rory and Magnus. In 2018, while promoting her and Nolan’s film Dunkirk, Thomas told Vanity Fair how the Hollywood power couple balance their work and family life.
“Sometimes people will say to me, ‘Gosh, how do you do it? You have four kids and you make these big movies,’ ” she said. “But the fact that I work with my children’s father means I can bring my kids to work. I have a massive advantage.”
Related: 'Oppenheimer' True Story: All About the Real Events That Inspired the Christopher Nolan Film
Thomas is one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood, with her and Nolan’s films having accumulated over $6 billion at the box office, per Variety.
"I work with Chris, so I fit what I do around what he needs, if that makes sense," she told the outlet. "The common thread between what I understand my friends who are producers do and what I do is that we are with a project from beginning to end."
In March 2024, Thomas won her first Oscar when Oppenheimer took home the award for Best Picture. "The reason this movie was the movie it was was because of Chris Nolan," she said when accepting the award. "He’s singular, he’s brilliant and I am so grateful for you."
So who is Christopher Nolan’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Emma Thomas and her relationship with the director.
She met Nolan in 1989
Nolan and Thomas met when they moved into their residence hall at UCL in 1989. Later, the pair ran the university's film society together.
While receiving an honorary doctorate from the school in 2017, The Dark Knight director spoke about meeting his wife.
“We have four children. We have a body of work that we have made together,” Nolan said at the ceremony. “So, the moral of the story is: pay a lot of attention to who you meet on your first night at your halls of residence.”
She was introduced to the world of film by Nolan
Thomas was born in London in 1971, and her father worked in civil service, which led to her spending some of her childhood living in the Middle East.
In January 2024, Thomas told Variety that she had to be brave about her career after a “very awkward lunch with [her] father.”
He presented Thomas with civil service brochures upon her college graduation, but she told him she wanted to pursue filmmaking and took on an unpaid internship with Working Title Films instead.
While doing this, she and Nolan were making their first feature-length film together, Following, on weekends, which ultimately kicked off one of Hollywood’s most successful working partnerships.
She and Nolan own a production company
The couple have a production company called Syncopy Inc. that operates out of London and Los Angeles. It was founded in 2001, and the name is a play on the word syncopate, which was suggested by Nolan’s late father.
Syncopy Inc. only has four employees, including Thomas and Nolan, and the producer addressed the decision to have a small group in 2018.
“We’re not empire builders, we’re about the individual film," Thomas told Vanity Fair.
She has produced all of Nolan’s films
Nolan is known as one of the greatest directors of all time, and his primary collaborator in life and filmmaking is Thomas. When accepting one of his DGA Awards, he even referred to her as his “partner in art and in life,” according to Deadline.
Thomas has produced all 12 feature films that Nolan directed, including his earlier short films, beginning with Doodlebug in 1997.
Most recently, in February 2024, Thomas was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about the couple's film history ahead of the 96th Academy Awards — where Oppenheimer earned 13 nominations and won for Best Picture.
“All of the films honestly have built upon each other,” she said. “For example, when you look at something like Inception, there’s no world in which we could have made that after Insomnia, or Memento."
Thomas added, "Each film builds on the last and yes, sometimes we do pinch ourselves and think, ‘gosh, how did we get here?’ ”
She is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood
Nolan and Thomas' films have grossed over $6 billion, and some of her films — such as The Dark Knight starring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker — are considered amongst the greatest films of all time. She has three Academy Award nominations herself — all Best Picture nods as a producer for Inception, Dunkirk and Oppenheimer.
It seems the couple's successful chemistry doesn't go unnoticed on set. While accepting the 2024 BAFTA Award for best actor in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy — who plays the film’s titular character — thanked Nolan and Thomas, describing their relationship as “the most dynamic, decent, kindest producer-director partnership in Hollywood."
In January 2024, Thomas spoke with Variety about her general philosophy on producing that has led to her success.
“You can ask 10 different producers [about what a good producer’s role is] and they will give you 10 different answers," she explained. "You can also be a producer on 10 movies and do the job differently every time because that’s what the job requires."
She shares four kids with Nolan
Shortly after forming their production company Syncopy Inc. in 2001, Nolan and Thomas welcomed their first child, Flora. After her, they celebrated the arrival of three sons: Oliver, Rory and Magnus.
The couple have had each of their children in their films in some capacity, including Flora as an extra in Oppenheimer and Interstellar.
Additionally, Magnus was featured briefly in Inception, and Rory could be spotted in The Dark Knight Rises. Their son Oliver appeared as a baby in one of their earlier films, The Prestige.
She is Nolan’s biggest influence
Nolan may be considered one of the most influential directors of all time, but one of his biggest influences is his wife.
An example of this took place after the release of Nolan’s 2014 science-fiction epic, Interstellar, when he wasn’t sure what to do for his next project.
Thomas put the book Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk by Joshua Levine in front of Nolan to help spark ideas.
The book featured first-hand accounts of the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II, with the varied stories inspiring Nolan’s signature non-linear form of storytelling to create his 2018 feature Dunkirk.
“I’ll continue to give him books and he’ll continue to not be excited by some,” Thomas said to Screen Daily in 2018. “But I’m hoping he’ll find inspiration for something that makes him want to make another film really soon.”
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