
Directing
Mike Leigh
Born 1943-02-20
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is a retired British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the comedy-drama Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Palme d'Or winner Secrets & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake (2004).
Acting

Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain
2025 · Self

Citizen B
2025 · Self

Her Name Was Moviola
2024 · Self

Cannes Uncut
2023 · Self

Why Are We (Not) Creative?
2021 · Self

Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
2020 · Self – Filmmaker

Scenes from A Separation
2018 · Self

Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light
2016 · Self
The One and Only Mike Leigh
2014 · Self

What Is Cinema?
2013 · Self

Vittorio D.
2009 · Self
Looking for Truffaut
2009 · Self

All About 'Abigail's Party'
2007 · Self

Cinema16: British Short Films
2003 · Self - Commentary, The Short & Curlies (voice)

Welcome to Hollywood
2000 · Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh: The Conversation
2000 · Self - Interviewee

Inside the Golden Statue
1998 · Self

Mike Leigh: Making Plays
1982 · Self

West 11
1963

Two Left Feet
1963 · Jim

Untitled 13
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