Guillermo Arriaga Jordán (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎeɾmo aˈrjaɣa]; born 13 March 1958) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter, director and producer.

[1] Before engaging in his writing career, Arriaga tried out a variety of jobs and professions, including boxing and playing basketball and professional soccer.

[citation needed] The success of Amores Perros earned Arriaga and Iñárritu an invitation to the U.S. to work on the Universal/Focus Features film 21 Grams, starring Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

[citation needed] González Iñárritu and Arriaga collaborated on a third movie, Babel, to form a trilogy with his first two pictures focusing on the theme of death.

[2] However, friction between writer and director led to González Iñárritu banning Arriaga from attending the 2006 Cannes screening of Babel.

The first film in the series—Words with Gods—includes contributions from Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Brazil's Jose Padilha, Australia's Warwick Thornton, Iran's Bahman Ghobadi, India's Mira Nair, and Japan's Hideo Nakata.