Niels Mueller
Born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
The writer and director made his big screen debut with The Assassination of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn.
A graduate of Tufts University and California's UCLA Film School, he scripted the indie hit Tadpole in 2002.
Mueller originally started working on the script for The Assassination of Richard Nixon in 1999 but September 11 put paid to any hopes of making it.
"There are films which Hollywood doesn’t often make where the experience goes beyond the 95-minutes of watching the film but you take something with it and think about it for a while."
However, he was encouraged by film school colleague Alexander Payne and other friends Alfonso Cuarón and Leonardo DiCaprio, who came on board as producers.
With the support of Sean Penn, who starred as Sam Bicke in the movie, he eventually finished the film, which also starred Don Cheadle.
