He majored in semiotics at Brown University, where he created his debut short film, Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud (1985), which was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (a figure Haynes would later mention in his film I'm Not There). Prior to his major film appearances, Haynes studied art and semiotics at Brown University. His first job after graduating from Brown University was working as an assistant editor on several episodes of The Bronx Is Burning, a television series set in New York's baseball world during the 1980s. Haynes then moved to Los Angeles where he worked on various projects including editing music videos and doing visual effects work. It was while working on this last project that he met director David Lynch who invited him to come work with him on his next movie. The two men formed a partnership that would result in one of Hollywood's most acclaimed films of 2007, I'm Not There, which examines different characters in the life of American poet Jim Morrison over a single night. After completing I'm Not There, they decided to make another film together called The Forgotten. This time, their focus turned to the early years of Morrison's career when he was part of a new wave of musicians known as the hippie revolution. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015 and was released in theaters nationwide on October 13th of the same year. Besides being a filmmaker, Todd Haynes is also an actor.