--- title: Taika Waititi Is on the 2022 TIME 100 List description: Find out why Taika Waititi is one of the 100 most influential people of 2022. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-05-23T10:06:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:22:37.018Z og:title: Taika Waititi: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:description: Find out why Taika Waititi is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bfb8c73cf068656/698a31ffdb29875dc1267d26/Taika-Waititi-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Taika Waititi: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taika Waititi: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 twitter:description: Find out why Taika Waititi is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bfb8c73cf068656/698a31ffdb29875dc1267d26/Taika-Waititi-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- May 23, 2022 # Taika Waititi by Sacha Baron Cohen  Peter Yang—AUGUST You can tell that a film was made by [Taika Waititi](https://time.com/5005130/thor-ragnarok-taika-waititi/) the same way you can tell a piece was painted by Picasso. Not in that he doesn’t know where on the face the eyes go, but in how he expresses his unique voice. The first work of Taika’s I saw was the 2014 mockumentary _What We Do in the Shadows_—a movie that could have been a disaster, but was amazing. It was brilliantly comic yet somehow made me care passionately about the fate of a bunch of murderous vampires. So I set about trying to meet Taika and convince him to work with me, which he obviously refused to do. Now, having watched all his work, from _Hunt for the Wilderpeople_ to [_Reservation Dogs_](https://time.com/6097570/reservation-dogs-suicide-indigenous-communities/)_,_ I’m really bitter. Taika has won an Oscar and made successful, hilarious, heartfelt movies. Yet he always brings to his work a light touch. He tells stories that are utterly watchable, even when they’re sad, or satirical. And they are always funny. He represents the best of the bygone era of wild, rock-star Hollywood types, mixed with the brilliance of a top auteur … Actually, sorry, but this guy’s really starting to piss me off. Mr. “I’m a bloody genius but I’m still fun.” Can someone else write this piece? _Baron Cohen is an Oscar-­nominated actor and screenwriter_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/"},"headline":"Taika Waititi","datePublished":"2022-05-23T10:06:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:37.018Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","TIME100 2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bfb8c73cf068656/698a31ffdb29875dc1267d26/Taika-Waititi-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bfb8c73cf068656/698a31ffdb29875dc1267d26/Taika-Waititi-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177807/taika-waititi/","name":"Taika Waititi"}}]}] ```