UK Directors

1. Sarah Gavron

Girl (little or teenage), woman, family, couple, friendship, emigration, class struggle, serious society subjects are terms that can be associated with the name of Sarah Gavron, one of the (too) few women directors in Great Britain.Via three major films "Brick Lane" (about the uprooting, ...

2. 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-...

3. 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).

4. Asif Kapadia

Director | The Warrior

Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award, Grammy and four time BAFTA winning Producer / Director / Writer who works across both film and television. Kapadia is known for his emotional engaging, visually striking, genre breaking films exploring 'outsiders' characters living in extreme circumstances, ...

5. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

6. Joe Cornish

Writer | Attack the Block

Joe Cornish was born on December 20, 1968 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for Attack the Block (2011), Ant-Man (2015) and The Kid Who Would Be King (2019).

7. 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 ...

8. Jim Sheridan

Producer | In America

Following a distinguished career in the theatre between the 1960s and the 1980s, Jim Sheridan wrote and directed his first critically acclaimed feature My Left Foot in 1989. The film was nominated for two European Film Awards. He followed this in 1990 with The Field which he also wrote and directed...

9. Kirsten Sheridan

Writer | In America

Kirsten Sheridan was born on July 14, 1976 in Dublin, Ireland. She is a writer and director, known for In America (2002), Patterns (1999) and Disco Pigs (2001).

10. Gurinder Chadha

Writer | Bend It Like Beckham

Gurinder Chadha was born in Kenya, and grew up in Southall, London, England. She began her career as a news reporter with BBC Radio, directed several award winning documentaries for the BBC, and began an alliance with the British Film Institute (BFI) and Channel Four. In 2001, Chadha set up her own...

11. 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).

12. Sharon Maguire

Director | Bridget Jones's Baby

Sharon Maguire was born on November 28, 1960 in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Incendiary (2008).

13. Sam Taylor-Johnson

Director | Nowhere Boy

Sam Taylor-Johnson was born on March 4, 1967 in London, England, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Nowhere Boy (2009), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and Love You More (2008). She has been married to Aaron Taylor-Johnson since June 21, 2012. They have two children. She was previously ...

14. Iain Softley

Director | Backbeat

Softley was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, London, and Queens' College, Cambridge University, where he was a member of the college's dramatic society, the BATS, and directed a number of highly-praised theatrical productions. He worked for Granada TV and the BBC before becoming a director...

15. Roger Donaldson

Director | The World's Fastest Indian

Roger Donaldson was born on November 15, 1945 in Ballarat, Australia. He is a director and producer, known for The World's Fastest Indian (2005), No Way Out (1987) and Species (1995). He is married to Marliese Schneider. He was previously married to Susan Hockley.

16. 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 ...

17. Gareth Evans

Writer | Serbuan maut

Welsh born writer/director, in 2003 directed a short film "Samurai Monogatari" telling the tale of a Samurai waiting to be executed. The short was in Japanese language and starred students from Tokyo who were studying at Cardiff University at the time.

In 2003 he also graduated with an MA in ...

18. Matthew Vaughn

Producer | Kick-Ass

Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director. He is known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) and for directing the crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), the fantasy epic, Stardust (2007), the superhero comedy, Kick-Ass (2010), and the ...

19. Duncan Jones

Director | Moon

Duncan Jones was born on May 30, 1971 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Moon (2009), Source Code (2011) and Mute (2018). He has been married to Rodene Ronquillo since November 6, 2012. They have two children.

20. Lynne Ramsay

Director | You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay was born on December 5, 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.

21. 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 ...

22. Lone Scherfig

Director | An Education

Writer/director Lone Scherfig graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 1984. Her first feature film, THE BIRTHDAY TRIP (1990), was selected for Panorama in Berlin, the New Directors section at MOMA in New York and won the Grand Jury Prix in Rouen. Her next film, ON OUR OWN (1998), ...

23. 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 ...

24. 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 ...

25. 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 ...

26. Julian Jarrold

Director | Kinky Boots

Julian Jarrold was born on May 15, 1960 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Kinky Boots (2005), Becoming Jane (2007) and Brideshead Revisited (2008).

27. Dexter Fletcher

Actor | Ghosted

Two-time BAFTA-nominated director Dexter Fletcher is an English actor-turned-filmmaker whose movies and TV work include the Academy Award-winning Elton John biopic Rocketman. Fletcher started his career in front of the camera at the age of 6; three years later he played "Baby Face" in Alan Parker's...

28. 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).

29. 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).

30. 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 ...

31. Alex Garland

Writer | Ex Machina

Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).

Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).

He is ...

32. James Hawes

Director | One Life

James Hawes set-up and directed the entire first season of 'Slow Horses' for AppleTV+.

His debut feature, 'One Life', premiered at TIFF and LFF in September 2023 and releases in the UK and US in early 2024. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins in a true story about the rescue of refugee children from ...

33. M.J. Bassett

Director | Solomon Kane

MJ Bassett is an English screenwriter, director and producer of feature film and television.

As a teenager in the UK, MJ's ambition was to become a wildlife vet. She was a veterinary assistant throughout her teenage years and was the youngest person in the UK to be granted a license to run a ...

34. Mike Barker

Director | The Handmaid's Tale

Mike Barker was born on November 29, 1965 in England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Handmaid's Tale (2017), Fargo (2014) and Broadchurch (2013).

35. Niall Johnson

Director | Keeping Mum

Niall Johnson was born in 1965 in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Keeping Mum (2005), Acres and Acres (2016) and White Noise (2005).

36. Rowan Joffe

Producer | The Informer

Rowan Joffe was born in 1972. He is a producer and writer, known for The Informer (2019), Before I Go to Sleep (2014) and Tin Star (2017).

37. Kieran Evans

Director | Kelly + Victor

Kieran Evans is known for Kelly + Victor (2012), Vashti Bunyan: From Here to Before (2008) and The Outer Edges (2013).

38. Jon S. Baird

Director | Tetris

BAFTA winning Scottish director Jon S. Baird has worked with Martin Scorsese, Danny Boyle, Terence Winter and numerous Academy award winning actors.

He began his career at BBC television and progressed through the ranks to become one of Britain's most exciting directorial talents.

Baird's sophomore ...

39. Farren Blackburn

Director | The Fades

With a number of award winning shorts, tv dramas and feature films to his name, Farren is considered one of the most sought after UK Filmmakers working today. He has a number of feature and tv projects in development and is currently directing the new season of Sky Atlantic/AMC's Emmy Nominated ...

40. Lenny Abrahamson

Director | Room

Lenny Abrahamson was born in Dublin in 1966. He studied physics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. While at university he directed short videos with the Trinity Video Society, which he co-founded with Ed Guiney. He graduated in 1991 with first class honours (gold medal). His first short film...

41. 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 ...

42. Sally El Hosaini

Director | The Swimmers

Sally El Hosaini was born in 1976 in Swansea, Wales, UK. She is a director and writer, known for The Swimmers (2022), My Brother the Devil (2012) and Green Zone (2010).

43. Tom Green

Director | Monsters: Dark Continent

Tom Green is known for Monsters: Dark Continent (2014), Parallel and Kiss Me First (2018).

44. Debbie Tucker Green

Writer | Second Coming

Debbie Tucker Green is known for Second Coming (2014), Ear for Eye (2021) and Random (2011).

45. Daniel Wolfe

Director | Catch Me Daddy

Daniel Wolfe is known for Catch Me Daddy (2014), Paolo Nutini: Iron Sky (2014) and The Shoes: Time to Dance (2012).

46. James Marsh

Director | The Theory of Everything

James Marsh was born on April 30, 1963 in Truro, Cornwall, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Theory of Everything (2014), The King (2005) and Shadow Dancer (2012).

47. Joe Wright

Director | Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright is an English film director. He is best known for Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Darkest Hour (2017).

Wright always had an interest in the arts, especially painting. He would also make films on his Super 8 camera as well as spend time in the evenings...

48. Rupert Wyatt

Director | The Escapist

Writer, Director and Producer Rupert Wyatt was born and raised in the South of England.

He is the founding member of the film collective Picture Farm that along with its prolific Commercial output has produced numerous Documentaries and Feature Films including the multi-award winning DARK DAYS (2001...