This is a list of
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
s and
television directors who were born in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, or lived and/or worked in the UK for a significant part of their career. Some Irish, American and European directors who have spent large portions of their career working in the UK are included on this list.
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Babar Ahmed
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Lewis Allen
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Lindsay Anderson
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Michael Anderson
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Michael Apted
Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer.
Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
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Andrea Arnold
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Amma Asante
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Anthony Asquith
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Richard Attenborough
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Paul WS Anderson
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Jane Arden
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Michael Armstrong
*Shona Auerbach
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Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British comedian, actor, writer, director and presenter. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 Br ...
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Roy Ward Baker
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Leedham Bantock
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Geoffrey Barkas
* Jessica Benhamou
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Sacha Bennett
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Daniel Birt
Daniel Birt (23 June 1907 – 15 May 1955) was an English language, English film director and editor.
Career
Birt began his career as an editor in 1932 with an assistant credit on ''The Lucky Number'' and went on to edit 12 films during t ...
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Terry Bishop
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Farren Blackburn
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Keith Boak
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John Boorman
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John Boulting
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Danny Boyle
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Kenneth Branagh
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Alan Bridges
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Adrian Brunel
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Paul Bryers
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Clio Barnard
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Jack Bond
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Peter Brook
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Danny Cannon
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Ben Caron
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Henry Cass
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Peter Cattaneo
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Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
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Alan Clarke
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Noel Clarke
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Jack Clayton
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Alex Cox
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Charles Crichton
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Richard Curtis
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Alex Chandon
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Elaine Constantine
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Paddy Considine
Patrick George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for playing antiheros in independent films. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard British ...
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Mark Cousins
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Stephen Daldry
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Desmond Davis
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Terence Davies
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Rowan Deacon
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Basil Dean
Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, a ...
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Basil Dearden
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Clive Donner
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Bill Douglas
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Sean Ellis
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Cy Endfield
Cyril Raker Endfield (November 10, 1914 – April 16, 1995) was an American film director, who at times also worked as a writer, theatre director, and inventor. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he worked in the New York theatre in the late 1930s ...
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Rupert Everett
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Terence Fisher
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Bill Forsyth
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Freddie Francis
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Stephen Frears
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Charles Frend
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Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...
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Stephen Fry
Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...
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Albert Finney
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Lewis Gilbert
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Terry Gilliam
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John Gilling
John Gilling (29 May 1912 – 22 November 1984) was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was known for his horror film, horror movies, especially those he made for Hammer Films, for whom he directed ''The Shadow of the ...
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Jonathan Glazer
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Peter Greenaway
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Val Guest
Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer Film Productions, ...
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Paul Greengrass
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Jack Gold
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Andrew Haigh
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Robert Hamer
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Guy Hamilton
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John Harlow
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Tom Harper
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Will Hay
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Stuart Hazeldine
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Mark Herman
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David Hewlett (British born Canadian)
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Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
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Mike Hodges
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Seth Holt
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Tom Hooper
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Peter Howitt
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Hugh Hudson
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Nicholas Hytner
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Joanna Hogg
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Andrew Haigh
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Ian Emes
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John Irvin
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Armando Iannucci
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Derek Jarman
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Julian Jarrold
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Garth Jennings
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Vicky Jewson
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Terry Jones
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Duncan Jones
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Patrick Keiller
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Beeban Kidron
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Anthony Kimmins
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Bernard Knowles
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Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; ; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)
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Zoltan Korda
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Suri Krishnamma
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Stanley Kubrick (U.S. Born)
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Simon Langton
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Frank Launder
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David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema. He directed the large-scale epi ...
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Malcolm Le Grice
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Francis Lee
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Mike Leigh
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David Leland
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Richard Lester
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Harry Lighton
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Phyllida Lloyd
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Ken Loach
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Adrian Lyne
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Jonathan Lynn
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Kim Longinotto
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Richard Loncraine
Richard Loncraine (born 20 October 1946) is a British film and television director.
Loncraine was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Loncraine received early training in the features department of the BBC, including a season directing i ...
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Charles Laughton
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John Madden
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James Marsh
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Neil Marshall
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Mary McGuckian
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Steve McQueen
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Shane Meadows
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Sam Mendes
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours ...
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Anthony Minghella
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Martin McDonagh
Martin Faranan McDonagh ( ; born 26 March 1970) is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his Absurdism, absurdist Black comedy, dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won List of awards and no ...
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Norman McLaren
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Gillies MacKinnon
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Alexander Mackendrick
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Carol Morley
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Ronald Neame
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Roy William Neill
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Mike Newell
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Christopher Nolan
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George More O'Ferrall
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William Oldroyd
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Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...
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Alan Parker
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Sally Potter
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Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company Powell and Pressburger, The Archers, they together wrote, produced ...
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Emeric Pressburger
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Lynne Ramsay
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Carol Reed
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Michael Reeves
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Karel Reisz
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Lis Rhodes
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Tony Richardson
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Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known primarily for British comedy gangster films and large-scale action-adventure films.
Ritchie left school at the age of 15, and worked in e ...
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Bruce Robinson
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Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg ( ; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing ''Performance (film), Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout (film), Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973) ...
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Bernard Rose
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Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...
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Charles Saunders
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Geoffrey Sax
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John Schlesinger
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Stefan Schwartz
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Ridley Scott
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Tony Scott
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Francis Searle
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Christopher Smith
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Roger Spottiswoode
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Rob Sorrenti
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Paul L. Stein
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Robert Stevenson
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Peter Strickland
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Amanda Tapping (British born Canadian)
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Gerald Thomas
Gerald Thomas (10 December 1920 – 9 November 1993) was an English film director best known for the long-running ''Carry On (franchise), ''Carry On'' series'' of British film comedies.
Early life
Born in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding ...
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Ralph Thomas
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J. Lee Thompson
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Pete Travis
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Peter Ustinov
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Biju Viswanath
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Matthew Vaughn
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John Walsh
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Peter Watkins
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James Whale
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Kanchi Wichmann
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Georgina Willis
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Michael Winner
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Arthur B. Woods
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Edgar Wright
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Joe Wright
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Michael Winterbottom
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Simon West
Simon Alexander West (born 17 July 1961) is an English film director and producer. He has primarily worked in the action genre, most notably as the director of the films ''Con Air'', ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'', ''The Mechanic (2011 film), Th ...
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Ben Wheatley
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Harry Wootliff
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David Yates
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Peter Yates
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Terence Young
See also
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Cinema of the United Kingdom
References
External links
Directors UKBritish Academy of Film and Television ArtsBritish Film InstituteBritmovie, Home of British Films
{{DEFAULTSORT:British film directors
British
Film directors
*List