Leos Carax (born November 22, 1960) is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl (1984), and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge (1991) and the controversial Pola X. His professional name is an anagram of his first and middle names.

Leos Carax was born Alexandre Oscar Dupont in Suresnes, a commune in the suburbs of Paris, France. His mother was American and his father French. He began his film career with a series of short films, and as a film critic, before he released Boy Meets Girl. That piece established Carax's reputation for a mature visual style. It also saw the first grouping of Carax with Denis Lavant and cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier. He followed the piece with the science fiction themed Bad Blood in 1986, which alienated some of his audience, but the work continued to explore the complexities of love in the modern world, this time through a darker, more criminal viewpoint. The work was clearly an homage to French New Wave cinema, and his use of such actresses as Juliette Binoche proved a touching tribute to his influences, especially Jean-Luc Godard.

Five years later, Carax returned to directing with Lovers on the Bridge, which proved to be an expensive undertaking as Parisian authorities granted him only 10 days in which he could film on Pont Neuf. His initial reaction to the problems of filming on a public bridge had been to construct a model of the bridge in the community of Lansargues, in Southern France. However, on the first day of filming Denis Lavant injured his thumb severely, which pushed the movie by a month. Subsequent financial difficulties pushed filming over a much longer period than intended. The movie was released to critical acclaim and opened the door for Carax to enter more experimental waters with his fourth feature, Pola X. That film, released in 1999, was an adaptation of Herman Melville's tale of incest, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities.

Leos Carax made several short films and also wrote film criticism, then at the age of 24 years made a very strong first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984). The film played at the 1984 Cannes film festival and was a critical triumph. It paved the way for Carax's second feature Mauvais sang (1986) (Bad Blood). That film was a giant step forward in the same direction that he was going in with his first film. Both films were visual stunning and focused on young love and also alienation. With his reputation and talent at it's peak, he set out to make what seemed it seemed like would be another triumph. Amants du Pont-Neuf, Les (1991) (The Lovers on the Bridge) was the result of three long years of a very difficult production, Carax spent a fortune building some of sets and filming some mind-blowing sequences. Unfortunately neither critics or audiences favored what was a truly grand vision of the themes he dealt with in his first 2 films. Carax went into an a 8 year long exile, but finally returned with Pola X (1999). It was a departure from his other films and another critical flop.