Uk directors

1. Jon Amiel

Director | Copycat

After studies in English literature, Jon Amiel graduated from Cambridge University and ran the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company, which often toured the USA. He became the Hampstead Theatre Company's literary manager and began directing there, relocating to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

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2. Andrea Arnold

Director | American Honey

Andrea Arnold was born on April 5, 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).

3. Richard Ayoade

Writer | Submarine

Richard Ellef Ayoade was born in Hammersmith, and grew up in Suffolk, in England, the son of a Norwegian mother, Dagny Amalie (Baassuik), and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. He studied Law at Cambridge university, and followed in the footsteps of British Comedy legends like Monty ...

4. Otto Bathurst

Director | Robin Hood

Otto Bathurst was born in June 1971 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Robin Hood (2018), Peaky Blinders (2013) and Black Mirror (2011).

5. J Blakeson

Writer | I Care a Lot

J Blakeson is known for I Care a Lot (2020), The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) and Culprits (2023).

6. James Bobin

Writer | Muppets Most Wanted

James Bobin was born in 1972 in Hampshire, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for Muppets Most Wanted (2014), The Muppets (2011) and Flight of the Conchords (2007). He is married to Fran Beauman. They have three children.

7. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

8. Kenneth Branagh

Actor | Henry V

Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents William Branagh, a plumber and carpenter, and Frances (Harper), both born in 1930. He has two siblings, William Branagh, Jr. (born 1955) and Joyce Branagh (born 1970). When he was nine, his family ...

9. Simon Cellan Jones

Director | Arthur the King

Simon Cellan Jones is known for Arthur the King (2024), The Family Plan (2023) and Our Friends in the North (1996).

10. Justin Chadwick

Director | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Justin Chadwick was born on December 1, 1968 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a director and actor, known for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013), The First Grader (2010) and Bleak House (2005).

11. S.J. Clarkson

Director | Madame Web

S.J. Clarkson is known for Madame Web (2024), The Defenders (2017) and Life on Mars (2006).

12. Nigel Cole

Director | Calendar Girls

Nigel Cole was born in 1959 in Launceston, Cornwall, England, UK. He is a director and actor, known for Calendar Girls (2003), Saving Grace (2000) and A Lot Like Love (2005). He has been married to Kate Isitt since January 1, 2000. They have two children. He was previously married to Sally Brampton.

13. Paddy Considine

Actor | Dead Man's Shoes

Paddy (Patrick) Considine was born on September 5, 1973 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire in the U.K. As a teenager, Considine studied a drama course at Burton College where he met with now friend and director Shane Meadows, who cast Considine in his first role in a feature film as the disturbed ...

14. Eran Creevy

Director | Welcome to the Punch

Eran Creevy was born in 1976 in London, England, UK. Eran is a director and writer, known for Welcome to the Punch (2013), The Gentlemen (2024) and Shifty (2008).

15. John Crowley

Director | Brooklyn

John Crowley was born on August 19, 1969 in Cork, Ireland. He is a director and producer, known for Brooklyn (2015), Boy A (2007) and Intermission (2003). He is married to Fiona Weir. They have one child.

16. Simon Curtis

Producer | Goodbye Christopher Robin

Simon Curtis began his directing career at the Royal Court Theatre, where he was Deputy Director to Max Stafford Clark and director of the Theatre Upstairs. His many productions there included the world premiere of Jim Cartwright's ROAD, which transferred to the Lincoln Center, New York. He has ...

17. Stephen Daldry

Director | The Reader

In 1989, Stephen Daldry worked as a freelance reader of unsolicited manuscripts for Literary Manager Nicholas Wright in the Scripts Department at the Royal National Theatre. In July of that year, he directed a Dadaist/expressionist production of "Judgement Day," a play by Odon von Horvath, at the ...

18. Terence Davies

Writer | Distant Voices, Still Lives

Terence Davies was born on November 10, 1945 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The House of Mirth (2000) and Benediction (2021). He died on October 7, 2023 in Mistley, Essex, England, UK.

19. Yann Demange

Director | '71

Yann Demange was born in 1977 in Paris, France. He is a producer and director, known for '71 (2014), Lovecraft Country (2020) and Top Boy (2011).

20. Saul Dibb

Director | The Duchess

Saul Dibb was born in 1968 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Duchess (2008), Suite Française (2014) and Bullet Boy (2004).

21. Andy De Emmony

Director | West Is West

Andy De Emmony is known for West Is West (2010), The Wipers Times (2013) and Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! (2006).

22. Richard Eyre

Director | Notes on a Scandal

Richard Eyre was born on March 28, 1943 in Barnstaple, Devon, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Notes on a Scandal (2006), Iris (2001) and Stage Beauty (2004). He has been married to Sue Birtwistle since 1973.

23. Marc Evans

Director | My Little Eye

Marc Evans was born in 1963 in Wales, UK. He is a director and writer, known for My Little Eye (2002), Snow Cake (2006) and House of America (1997).

24. Julian Farino

Director | Giri/Haji

Julian Farino was born and raised in London and educated at Cambridge University. He began directing film documentaries at Granada Television in England, including One of the Girls about drag queens in Manchester and The Gift based on the famous Chethams College of Music. They Call Us Nutters was a...

25. Ralph Fiennes

Actor | The Constant Gardener

Actor Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus ...

26. Stephen Frears

Director | Dangerous Liaisons

Stephen started off in a career in the legal profession before switching to work as an assistant stage manager at London's Royal Court which led to work as an assistant director on films by Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson He directed his first short in 1967 and his feature debut, Gumshoe, in 1971....

27. Jonathan Glazer

Director | Under the Skin

Jonathan first found fame for his revolutionary work on Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' and Jamiroquai's multi-MTV award winning 'Virtual Insanity' video.

In 1999 he directed the ground-breaking Guinness 'Surfer', which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils and the top spot at most of the other awards ...

28. Paul Greengrass

Director | United 93

Paul Greengrass started his filmmaking career with a super 8 camera he found in his art room in secondary school. Those short movies were animation horror films he made using old dolls, artist dummies, and the general art room clutter.

After studying in Cambridge University he got into Granada ...

29. Paul McGuigan

Director | Lucky Number Slevin

Paul is a Bafta and Emmy nominated director known for Sherlock, Lucky Number Slevin, Inside Man and Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool. Born in Bellshill, Scotland he started his professional life as a photographer and then documentary filmmaker. His first film was Acid House in 1998 which is an ...

30. Michael Grandage

Director | My Policeman

Michael Grandage was born on May 2, 1962 in Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for My Policeman (2022), Genius (2016) and Jack and Lem.

31. Tom Harper

Director | The Aeronauts

Tom Harper is a BAFTA nominated British film and television director, writer and producer. He was born and brought up in London.

Harper began his career making short films. He wrote and directed his break out short film, Cubs, in 2006 about urban fox hunting. He then moved on to direct a range of ...

32. J. Lee Thompson

Director | The Guns of Navarone

J. Lee Thompson was born on August 1, 1914 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). He was married to Penny Thompson, Florence (Bill) Bailey, Lucille Kelly and Joan ...

33. David Lean

Director | Lawrence of Arabia

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...

34. Alfred Hitchcock

Director | Psycho

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...

35. Carol Reed

Director | The Third Man

Carol Reed was the second son of stage actor, dramatics teacher and impresario founder of the Royal School of Dramatic Art Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Reed was one of Tree's six illegitimate children with Beatrice Mae Pinney, who Tree established in a second household apart from his married life. ...

36. Herbert Wilcox

Producer | Victoria the Great

Herbert Wilcox was born on April 19, 1890 in West Norwood, London, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Victoria the Great (1937), Spring in Park Lane (1948) and The Loves of Robert Burns (1930). He was married to Anna Neagle, Maud Violet Bower and Dorothy Brown. He died on May 15...

37. Basil Dearden

Director | Sapphire

A former stage director, Basil Dearden entered films as an assistant to director Basil Dean (he changed his name from Dear to avoid being confused with Dean). Dearden worked his way up the ladder and directed (with Will Hay) his first film in 1941; two years later he directed his first film on his ...

38. Frank Launder

Writer | The Blue Lagoon

Frank Launder, initially a civil servant and repertory actor, started as a scriptwriter in the late 1920s on such classics as The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Night Train to Munich (1940). He joined forces with Sidney Gilliat and together they wrote, directed and produced over 40 films. Frank Launder ...

39. Sidney Gilliat

Writer | State Secret

Sidney Gilliat, the English director, screenwriter, and producer, was born on February 15, 1908 in Edgely, Cheshire, England. He began his screen-writing career in the silent movie era, writing inter-titles, going uncredited for his contributions to Honeymoon Abroad (1928), Champagne (1928), and ...

40. Robert Hamer

Director | Kind Hearts and Coronets

Robert James Hamer was born in 1911 along with his twin sister Barbara, the son of Owen Dyke Hamer, a bank clerk, and his wife, Annie Grace Brickell. He was educated at Cambridge University where he wrote some poetry and was published in a collection 'Contemporaries and Their Maker', along with the...

41. Thorold Dickinson

Director | Giv'a 24 Eina Ona

Born in Bristol, England, Thorold Dickinson began his film career during the silent era as a writer. He went to work for Ealing in the 1930s, first as an editor and then as a director. He directed or produced military training films during World War II, and after the war he turned out a string of ...

42. Michael Powell

Director | Peeping Tom

The son of Thomas William Powell and Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self-confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the south of France (where his parents ran a hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury and Dulwich ...

43. Robert Asher

Director | The Avengers

British director Robert Asher began his film career in 1934 as an assistant director, and in that capacity worked with such directors as Roy Ward Baker and Anthony Pelissier. He became a director in 1959 with the Norman Wisdom comedy Follow a Star (1959). He and Wisdom were a good team, and Asher ...

44. Terence Davies

Writer | Distant Voices, Still Lives

Terence Davies was born on November 10, 1945 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The House of Mirth (2000) and Benediction (2021). He died on October 7, 2023 in Mistley, Essex, England, UK.

45. Desmond Davis

Director | I Was Happy Here

Desmond Davis was born on May 24, 1926 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Time Lost and Time Remembered (1966), Girl with Green Eyes (1964) and Clash of the Titans (1981). He was married to Shirley Smith. He died on July 3, 2021.

46. John Paddy Carstairs

Director | Incident in Shanghai

Writer-director John Paddy Carstairs was born Nelson Keys, the son of actor Nelson Keys and the brother of producer Anthony Nelson Keys, in London, England, in 1910. Beginning his career as an assistant cameraman, he worked his way up to screenwriter and made his directorial debut in 1933. While ...

47. Anthony Asquith

Director | The Browning Version

British film director Anthony Asquith was born on November 9, 1902, to H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was ...

48. Clive Donner

Director | The Caretaker

British director Clive Donner was born in West Hampstead, London, England. By age 18 he was already working in the film business, as an office clerk at Denham Studios. He eventually became an editor and then graduated to the director's chair. After making a series of TV commercials, he made his ...

49. Maurice Elvey

Director | The Glad Eye

Maurice Elvey was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, the oldest son of William Clarence Folkard, an inspecting engineer, and Sarah Anna Seward Folkard (formerly Pearce). He never had a formal education, and was working on the streets of London by the age of nine after having run away...

50. Terry Gilliam

Writer | Brazil

Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...

51. Brian Desmond Hurst

Director | On the Night of the Fire

Hailing from East Belfast, Northern Ireland, Hans Moore Hawthorn Hurst was a linen worker before joining the army during World War I. He was a private in the Royal Irish Rifles, and survived the slaughter at the disastrous Gallipoli landing in Turkey. He changed his name to Brian Desmond Hurst. On ...

52. Lance Comfort

Director | Temptation Harbour

Director Lance Comfort began his film career as a camera operator. He also worked as a sound recordist and animator, mostly in British documentaries and medical training films. His first feature was the big-budget but slow-moving Courageous Mr. Penn (1942), a biography of 18th-century political ...

53. Jack Gold

Director | Aces High

Jack Gold was born on June 28, 1930 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Aces High (1976), The National Health (1973) and Famine (1967). He was married to Denyse Alexander. He died on August 9, 2015.

54. Ken Russell

Director | The Devils

Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the 1960s that are ...

55. Wendy Toye

Director | The Stranger Left No Card

Wendy Toye was born on May 1, 1917 in London, England, UK. She was a director and actress, known for The Stranger Left No Card (1952), On the Twelfth Day... (1955) and Follow the Star (1979). She was married to Edward Selwyn Sharp. She died on February 27, 2010 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, UK.

56. Peter Greenaway

Director | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway trained as a painter and began working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information in 1965. Shortly afterwards he started to make his own films. He has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books. He has held several ...

57. Ken Loach

Director | I, Daniel Blake

Unlike virtually all his contemporaries, Ken Loach has never succumbed to the siren call of Hollywood, and it's virtually impossible to imagine his particular brand of British socialist realism translating well to that context.

After studying law at St. Peter's College, Oxford, he branched out into ...

58. Tony Richardson

Director | Tom Jones

The son of a Shipley chemist he was initially connected with the stage first with the post war Shipley Young Theatre then with the Bradford Civic Theatre where he came into contact with the Bradford born author J B Priestley who recognising his potential commissioned him to write a TV documentary. ...

59. Anthony Harvey

Director | The Lion in Winter

Anthony Harvey was born on June 3, 1930 in London, England, UK. He was an editor and director, known for The Lion in Winter (1968), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and Dutchman (1966). He died on November 23, 2017 in Southampton, New York, USA.

60. Richard Attenborough

Actor | Jurassic Park

Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a ...

61. Graham Cutts

Director | Woman to Woman

Graham Cutts' career in the film industry began in 1909, when he became a film exhibitor. It wasn't long before he got involved in the production end of the business, and became a director in 1922. He was a co-founder of the prestigious studio Gainsborough Films, and while at Gainsborough guided ...

62. Roy Ward Baker

Director | A Night to Remember

Roy Ward Baker's first job in films was as a teaboy at the Gainsborough Studios in London, England, but within three years he was working as an assistant director. During World War II, he worked in the Army Kinematograph Unit under Eric Ambler, a writer and film producer, who, after the war, gave ...

63. Michael Apted

Director | Amazing Grace

Michael Apted was born on February 10, 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Amazing Grace (2006), Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Rome (2005). He was married to Paige Simpson, Dana Stevens and Jo Apted. He died on January 7, 2021 in Los Angeles,...

64. Charles Crichton

Director | A Fish Called Wanda

Director Charles Crichton's film career began as an editor in 1935 with Alexander Korda's London Films, and in that capacity he worked on such productions as Sanders of the River (1935), Things to Come (1936) and Elephant Boy (1937) (which introduced Sabu to movie audiences). He soon left London ...

65. Terence Young

Director | Dr. No

Born in Shanghai and Cambridge-educated, Terence Young began in the industry as a scriptwriter. In the 1940s he worked on a variety of subjects, including the hugely popular wartime romance Suicide Squadron (1941), set to Richard Addinsell's rousing "Warsaw Concerto". His original story was devised...

66. John Boulting

Director | I'm All Right Jack

John Boulting was born on December 21, 1913 in Bray, Berkshire, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for I'm All Right Jack (1959), Seven Days to Noon (1950) and Private's Progress (1956). He was married to Anne Josephine Flynn, Ann Marion Ware, Jacqueline Helen Duncan and Veronica ...

67. Roy Boulting

Director | Seven Days to Noon

Roy Boulting was born on December 21, 1913 in Bray, Berkshire, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Seven Days to Noon (1950), A French Mistress (1960) and The Family Way (1966). He was married to Sandra Payne, Hayley Mills, Enid Munnik, Jean Capon and Marian Angela Warnock. He died...

68. Sam Mendes

Producer | 1917

Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-...

69. Laurence Olivier

Actor | Sleuth

Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...

70. George More O'Ferrall

Director | The Heart of the Matter

George More O'Ferrall was born on July 4, 1907 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for The Heart of the Matter (1953), ITV Play of the Week (1955) and Picture Page (1936). He was married to Elizabeth Lockwood. He died on March 18, 1982 in Ealing, London, England, UK.

71. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian

Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

72. Robert Stevenson

Director | Mary Poppins

Robert Stevenson was born on March 31, 1905 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Nine Days a Queen (1936). He was married to Ursula Henderson, Frances Holyoke Howard, Anna Lee and Cecilie L Leslie. He ...

73. Michael Winner

Director | Death Wish

Winner was an only child, born in Hampstead, London, England, to Helen (née Zlota) and George Joseph Winner (1910-1975), a company director. His family was Jewish; his mother was Polish and his father of Russian extraction. Following his father's death, Winner's mother gambled recklessly and sold ...

74. Roy Kellino

Director | Four Star Playhouse

Roy Kellino was born on April 22, 1912 in London, England as Philip Roy Gislingham. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Four Star Playhouse (1952), _Schlitz Playhouse (1951) (TV Series)_, and Charade (1954). He was married firstly to Pamela Ostrer (later known as Pamela Mason), and ...

75. George King

Director | Little Stranger

Producer/director George King began his career in the British film industry in the 1920s as an agent. He eventually moved into writing, then turned to producing and directing, mostly in the field known as "quota quickies" (films made to comply with the British government's requirement that a ...

76. Leslie Arliss

Director | William Tell

Former journalist and film critic Leslie Arliss began his film career as a screenwriter in the 1930s, mainly for Gainsborough Pictures. He continued as a writer for ten years, leaving Gainsborough in 1941 when he was offered a chance to direct at Associated British. It wasn't long before he ...

77. Henry Cornelius

Producer | It Always Rains on Sunday

Born in South Africa, Henry Cornelius traveled to Europe, where he worked as an actor and director in stage productions in Germany, France and England. In 1933, with the Nazi takeover of Germany, Cornelius left Germany for France, and studied at the Sorbonne. He hooked up with director René Clair ...

78. J. Lee Thompson

Director | The Guns of Navarone

J. Lee Thompson was born on August 1, 1914 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). He was married to Penny Thompson, Florence (Bill) Bailey, Lucille Kelly and Joan ...

79. Muriel Box

Writer | The Seventh Veil

Muriel Box was born on September 22, 1905 in New Malden, Surrey [now in Kingston upon Thames, London], England, UK. She was a writer and director, known for The Seventh Veil (1945), Mr. Lord Says No (1952) and A Novel Affair (1957). She was married to Gerald Gardiner and Sydney Box. She died on May...

80. Gerald Thomas

Director | The Vicious Circle

Educated at Bristol and London, he studied to be a doctor. During the war he served with the Royal Sussex Regiment in Europe and the Middle East. On being demobbed he joined the film industry as an assistant editor at Denham Studios working on October Man (1947) and Hamlet (1948) then as 1st ...

81. Ralph Thomas

Director | Doctor in the House

Educated at Middlesex College, Ralph started working in films as a clapper boy. He gave up on the movie industry in 1934 going to work as a journalist. During WWII he served with the 9th Lancers cavalry regiment. After the war he joined the Rank organisation and soon became one of their directors.

82. Victor Saville

Director | The Faithful Heart

An art dealer's son, Victor Saville was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham. He served with the London Rifles in the British Army during World War I, was wounded by a mortar shell at the Battle of Loos in 1915 and invalided out the following year. His first involvement with the ...

83. Peter Yates

Director | Krull

Having seen Robbery (1967) and Bullitt (1968), it comes as no surprise that Peter Yates started out as a professional racing car driver and team manager - albeit briefly - before turning his attention to film. The son of a military man, he was educated at Charterhouse School and trained at RADA, ...

84. Lindsay Anderson

Director | If....

Lindsay was born in Bangalore, India but educated in England at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford where he was a classical scholar. He then spent 3 years war time service in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. His career in the theatre started at the Royal Court in the late 1950's where he was...

85. John Boorman

Producer | Hope and Glory

John Boorman attended Catholic school (Salesian Order) although his family was not, in fact, Roman Catholic. His first job was for a dry-cleaner. Later, he worked as a critic for a women's journal and for a radio station until he entered the television business, working for the BBC in Bristol. ...

86. Danny Boyle

Director | 127 Hours

Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...

87. Stephen Frears

Director | Dangerous Liaisons

Stephen started off in a career in the legal profession before switching to work as an assistant stage manager at London's Royal Court which led to work as an assistant director on films by Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson He directed his first short in 1967 and his feature debut, Gumshoe, in 1971....

88. Michael Winterbottom

Director | A Mighty Heart

Michael took an English degree at Oxford then trained in film at Bristol and London breaking into television via the cutting room at Thames Television. He made his directorial debut with two documentaries on Ingmar Bergman His production of Love Lies Bleeding won the Silver Award at the 1993 New ...

89. Mike Leigh

Director | Secrets & Lies

Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...

90. Alexander Mackendrick

Writer | The Man in the White Suit

One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out as a ...

91. Shane Meadows

Director | This Is England

Shane Meadows was born on December 26, 1972 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for This Is England (2006), Dead Man's Shoes (2004) and TwentyFourSeven (1997).

92. Nicolas Roeg

Director | Don't Look Now

When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...

93. Nick Broomfield

Director | Ghosts

Nick Broomfield was born on January 30, 1948 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Ghosts (2006), Battle for Haditha (2007) and Aileen Wuornos: Selling of a Serial Killer (1992).

94. Richard Curtis

Writer | Love Actually

Richard Curtis was born on November 8, 1956 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a writer and producer, known for Love Actually (2003), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and About Time (2013).

95. Mike Figgis

Director | Leaving Las Vegas

When young he lived with his four brothers and sisters in a council house in Newcastle Upon Tyne then when 14 the family moved to Thornyburn near Bellingham where he made his first film, 'Redheugh'. He qualified in Newcastle as a music teacher and played in a band, 'The Gasboard' with Brian Ferry ...

96. Bill Forsyth

Director | Local Hero

Bill Forsyth was born on July 29, 1946 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Local Hero (1983), Gregory's Girl (1980) and Housekeeping (1987).

97. Tom Hooper

Director | Cats

Tom Hooper was educated at one of England's most prestigious schools, Westminster. His first film, Runaway Dog, was made when he was 13 years old and shot on a Clockwork 16mm Bolex camera, using 100 feet of film. At age 18, he wrote, directed and produced the short film Painted Faces (1992), which ...

98. Hugh Hudson

Director | Chariots of Fire

The old Etonian, after National Service in the British Army, wanted to get into films but found the doors were closed to him, so he worked on commercials for about 20 years. David Putnam gave him a chance to direct Chariots of Fire which was a hit, and he never looked back.

He met his second wife, ...

99. Nicholas Hytner

Director | The Madness of King George

Nicholas Hytner was born on May 7, 1956 in Manchester, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Madness of King George (1994), The Crucible (1996) and The History Boys (2006).

100. Roland Joffé

Director | The Mission

Roland Joffé was born on November 17, 1945 in London, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for The Mission (1986), The Killing Fields (1984) and The Great Hunger.