James Cameron is a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer who has had an extensive career in film and television. Cameron's debut was the 1978 science fiction short Xenogenesis, which he directed, wrote and produced. In his early career, he did various technical jobs such as special visual effects producer, set dresser assistant, matte artist, and photographer. His feature directorial debut was the 1982 release Piranha II: The Spawning. The next film he directed was the science fiction action thriller The Terminator (1984) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg assassin, and was Cameron's breakthrough feature. In 1986, he directed and wrote the science fiction action sequel Aliens starring Sigourney Weaver. He followed this by directing another science fiction film The Abyss (1989). In 1991, Cameron directed the sequel to The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Schwarzenegger reprising his role), and also executive produced the action crime film Point Break. Three years later he directed a third Schwarzenegger-starring action film True Lies (1994).

In 1997, Cameron directed, wrote, and produced the epic romantic disaster film Titanic which grossed over $1.8 billion at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time. He received the Academy Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with the other producers. It had a total of 14 Oscar nominations (tying the record set by the 1950 drama All About Eve) and won 11 (tying the record set by the 1959 epic historical drama Ben-Hur). Cameron also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and shared the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama with the other producers. He followed this by directing, and producing two underwater documentaries: Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), and Aliens of the Deep (2005). He returned to directing features in 2009 with the 3D science fiction film Avatar. It grossed over $2.9 billion at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time surpassing Titanic. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three in technical categories. Cameron also earned a second Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and Best Motion Picture – Drama. He followed this by executive producing two 3D films, Sanctum (2011) and Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012), as well as the documentary Deepsea Challenge 3D (2014).

Cameron made his television debut in 1998 playing himself in the sitcom Mad About You. Two years later he executive produced the science fiction television series Dark Angel (2000) starring Jessica Alba. In 2005, he appeared in two documentaries about the sinking of the RMS Titanic: Last Mysteries of the Titanic, and Tony Robinson's Titanic Adventure. He also made appearances as himself on the comedy-drama television series Entourage that same year. Cameron followed this by executive producing two biblical documentaries, The Exodus Decoded (2006) and Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007). He executive produced and appeared in a third Titanic related documentary, Titanic: Final Word with James Cameron, in 2012. Two years later, Cameron executive produced the climate change documentary television series Years of Living Dangerously (2014) which received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

Film

Feature films

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Credited as				Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Writer	Producer	Editor
1978	Xenogenesis	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Short film Co-directed and co-written with Randall Frakes Also visual effects producer
1982	Piranha II: The Spawning	Yes	Yes	No	No	Co-written with Charles H. Eglee and Ovidio G. Assonitis (uncredited)
1984	The Terminator	Yes	Yes	No	No	Co-written with Gale Anne Hurd
1985	Rambo: First Blood Part II	No	Yes	No	No	Co-written with Sylvester Stallone
1986	Aliens	Yes	Yes	No	No
1989	The Abyss	Yes	Yes	No	No
1991	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with William Wisher Jr.
1994	True Lies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Uncredited
1995	Strange Days	No	Yes	Yes	Uncredited	Co-written with Jay Cocks
1997	Titanic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Also director of photography: Titanic deep dive
2002	Solaris	No	No	Yes	No
2009	Avatar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2019	Alita: Battle Angel	No	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with Laeta Kalogridis
	Terminator: Dark Fate	No	Story	Yes	No	Story co-written with Charles Eglee, Josh Friedman, David Goyer and Justin Rhodes
2022	Avatar: The Way of Water	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
2025	Avatar 3 †	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver Post-production
2029	Avatar 4 †	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Filming

Executive producer

• Point Break (1991)
• Sanctum (2011)
• Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)

Documentary features

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Producer	Himself
2002	Expedition: Bismarck	Yes	Yes	Yes
2003	Ghosts of the Abyss	Yes	Yes	Yes	Also Reality Camera System designer
	Volcanoes of the Deep Sea	No	Executive	No	IMAX only
2004	The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing	No	No	Yes
2005	Aliens of the Deep	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-directed with Steven Quale Also cinematographer
2006	Explorers: From the Titanic to the Moon	No	No	Yes
2012	Side by Side	No	No	Yes
2014	Deepsea Challenge 3D	No	Executive	Yes
2016	Score: A Film Music Documentary	No	No	Yes
2018	The Game Changers	No	Executive	No
2020	Akashinga: The Brave Ones	No	Executive	No
2021	The Six	No	Executive	Yes

Other credits

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1979	Rock 'n' Roll High School	Production assistant (uncredited)
1980	Happy Birthday, Gemini	Set dresser assistant
	Battle Beyond the Stars	Photographer, art director and miniatures designer
1981	Escape from New York	Special visual effects photographer and matte artist
	Galaxy of Terror	Second unit director and production designer
1982	Android	Design consultant
2022	Avatar: The High Ground	Based on a screenplay by James Cameron

Television

Television series

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes	Ref(s)
1998	Mad About You	Himself	Episode: "The Finale"
2000–2002	Dark Angel	—	Executive producer Episode: "Pilot" (writer) Episode: "Freak Nation" (director and writer)
2005–2006	Entourage	Himself	4 episodes
2023	True Lies	—	Executive producer Characters

Documentary films

Year(s)	Title	Director	Producer	Himself	Notes	Ref(s)
2002	Expedition: Bismarck	Yes	Yes	No	Co-directed with Gary Johnstone
2005	Last Mysteries of the Titanic	Yes	Yes	No
	Tony Robinson's Titanic Adventure	No	No	Yes
2006	The Exodus Decoded	No	Executive	No
2007	The Lost Tomb of Jesus	No	Executive	No
2010	Avatar: Creating the World of Pandora	No	No	Yes
2012	Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron	No	No	Yes
	James Cameron: Voyage to the Bottom of the Earth	No	No	Yes
2013	A New Age of Exploration: National Geographic at 125	No	No	Yes
2017	Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron	No	No	Yes
2023	Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron	No	Executive	Yes

Documentary series

Year(s)	Title	Executive Producer	Host	Ref(s)
2014	Years of Living Dangerously	Yes	No
2018	James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction	Yes	Yes
2021	Secrets of the Whales	Yes	No
2023	Secrets of the Elephants	Yes	No
2024	Secrets of the Octopus	Yes	No

See also

• James Cameron's unrealized projects