Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970) — also known as P.T. Anderson — is an American filmmaker. Interested in film-making at a young age, Anderson was encouraged by his father Ernie Anderson (a disc jockey, and television and radio announcer/voiceover artist) to become a filmmaker. Anderson is a distinctive filmmaker of his generation, praised as a wunderkind after the release of the dramas Boogie Nights and Magnolia.