Filmmaker, storyteller, and dream sculptor Guillermo del Toro (1964–) believes that monsters, myths, and the shadowed corners of the soul are where our light is revealed.

Born on this day in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Oscar-winning director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water builds worlds that ache with compassion and craft.

As he once explained, “I don’t create fantasy, I create reality. I try to create a reality where you believe these monsters live, where you believe these things are true.”

His devotion to detail, clock gears, wings, and secret keys,demonstrates how beauty is not perfection, but truth. Del Toro’s heroes are ordinary people who dare to love in extraordinary times. Through his vision, he offers hope that art can heal what reality wounds.

Speaking tenderly of his craft, he shared, “I always feel that the characters I create are a bit like children. They come out of me and I care deeply for them.”

In another moment of insight, he added, “We all have monsters. It’s not a question of fighting them—it’s a question of learning to live with them.” In this way, his work becomes a mirror for the human heart: strange and luminous.

When we create with words, paint, or presence, we bring our own light to the dark. We become, as del Toro teaches, artists of empathy.