Biography

As a child I was heavily influenced by the original Star Wars trilogy and had ambitions of becoming a magician within the magic circle. Out of this naturally grew an interest in special effects and by sixteen I was making spoof videos in a disused quarry as an excuse to experiment with homemade pyrotechnics, prosthetics and fake blood.

The more films I made however the more my interest shifted towards the actual filmmaking process. Heading into further education I began to focus on writing, producing, directing and editing, leaving University in 1997 with a handful of short films.

I then moved to London to submerge myself in the feature film industry and through a combination of coincidence and blind luck, landed my first job on Star Wars Episode One. Over the next four years I took on varied assisting roles, getting a broad knowledge and understanding of the industry and learning from a diverse range of directors, including George Lucas, Tim Burton, Beeban Kidron and the late Robert Altman.

Conscious that my showreel was becoming out-of-date, I completed a Master of Arts in fiction direction at the National Film and Television School. I graduated with the hugely successful short The Happiness Thief that premiered in competition at Cannes in 2004. Since then I have been developing a slate of feature length projects, as well as directing shorts for the BBC and Screen South.