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Nicolás Javier López Fernández (born 16 March 1983) is a Chilean film director,

screenwriter and producer.He is known for comedies such as Promedio Rojo (2004), the

Qué pena trilogy (2010–2012), and the Paz Bascuñán vehicles Sin filtro (2016) and No estoy

loca (2018).== Life and work ==

López became interested in filmmaking at a young age.After reading Robert Rodriguez's

Rebel Without a Crew (1995) and watching Kevin Smith's Clerks (1994), he began

experimenting with his family's video camera.By the age of 12, he was already writing a

column for El Mercurio, one of the most prestigious and conservative right-wing Chilean

newspapers.His column, "Memorias de un Pingüino" ("Memories of a Penguin"), ran from

1997 to 1999 and described the life of a student, commonly known as a "penguin" in Chile

because of the typical black and white uniform.The comments he made in the column led to

him being expelled from school.At the age of 14, after his expulsion, he began a new column

called "López" with a more mature style.At the age of 15, López made his debut at the

Valdivia Film Festival with the short film Pajero ("wanker"), which tells the story of a

teenager constantly interrupted during masturbation.The next year he filmed Superhéroes,

the story of a teenager who tries to convince people that he is a superhero, and in 2000 he

filmed Florofilia, a love story between a man and a plant.He became partner and co-founder

of sobras.com, a website about cinema, television, books, comics and video games that

focused on young audiences.He then founded the first independent film festival in Santiago,

the "Sobras Independent Film Festival", as well as Sobras.com Producciones, a film

production company.As associate producer, López took charge of the marketing of Jorge

Olguín's horror movie Ángel Negro in 2000, and the adult animation Cesante

("unemployed"), which he co-wrote.He also ran the marketing for other Chilean films such

as Olguín's Sangre Eterna (2002) and Orlando Lübbert's Taxi para tres (2001).He co-

directed many music videos, and won an MTV Latin Music Award in 2002 for "Mujer

Robusta" by Sinergia.He co-wrote the 2003 edition of the MTV Latin Music Award and, also

in 2003, he directed, co-wrote and acted in an absurd comedy series for the same network,

called Piloto MTV, along with Eduardo Bertrán.At the age of 20, López directed his first

feature film, Promedio Rojo (2004), an absurdist romantic comedy about teenage nerds, in

which the main character slips in and out of reality, with the 'unreal' scenes animated.He

won the special jury prize at the Viña del Mar International Film Festival, and featured in

the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and LA Film Fest.Although the film was

criticized in his native country, it caught the attention of international directors and other

industry personalities including Salma Hayek, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro González Iñárritu

and Guillermo del Toro.In 2005, and with a bigger budget, López began working on Santos,

a film about a failed comic artist.Released in 2008, the film was poorly received by critics

and did not fulfill its financial expectations.In 2010, after the failure of Santos, López wrote

and directed his highest-grossing film yet, Qué pena tu vida, spawning two sequels and

building a cast of regular actors such as Ariel Levy, Paz Bascuñán, Lorenza Izzo, Andrea

Velasco, Ignacia Allamand, Nicolás Martínez, Ramón Llao and Alison Mandel.In 2012, López

partnered with the American director Eli Roth to release Aftershock, a Chilean-American

disaster movie loosely inspired by events that took place during the 2010 Chile

earthquake.It was López's first English-language film and was produced for his company

Sobras, by Roth, Miguel Asensio and Brian Oliver.The movie debuted at the Toronto

International Film Festival.Following the box-office underperformance of Aftershock, The

Green Inferno (2013) and Knock, Knock (2015), López put his "Chilewood" ambitions with

Roth on hold and returned to bawdy comedy, scoring huge hits with Sin filtro (2016), Hazlo

como hombre (2017) and No estoy loca (2018).== Sexual Abuse Accusations ==

On 30 June 2018, eight Chilean actresses and models accused López of sexual harassment

and workplace bullying.The following day Netflix announced it was putting its deal with

Sobras "under review" and López himself posted a video online stating he was resigning

from Sobras and that he would defend himself against the allegations: "I don't understand

what is happening nor the break in my years-long relationships of trust and affection.If I

sometimes have been misunderstood, I apologize.But I'm not a stalker nor an abuser."On 26

April 2022, López was found guilty of sexual abuse , and on 16 May was sentenced to five

years and one day in jail under a new law, but few days later it was modified by the

Supreme Court of Chile to a penalty of three years and one day of intensive probation.