Tim Burton is an American director, screenwriter and producer born in Burbank in 1958. After beginning his career as an animator at Disney, he developed a gothic, fairy-tale visual style influenced by expressionism and outsider figures. Films such as Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Big Fish have made him one of contemporary cinema’s most recognisable authors. His work often explores the contrast between individual purity and social conformity.