Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...

. He is best known for directing independent films '' Adam & Paul'' (2004), '' Garage'' (2007), '' What Richard Did'' (2012), '' Frank'' (2014), and ''

Room In a building or a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is ...

'' (2015), all of which contributed to Abrahamson's six Irish Film and Television Awards. In 2015, he received widespread recognition for directing ''

'', based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue. The film received four nominations at the 88th Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Abrahamson. In 2020, he directed six episodes of and executive produced the television series '' Normal People'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.

Early life and education

Abrahamson was born in

Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside (Dublin), southside suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in County Dublin. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16, 16. It is between the Lo ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, the son of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

parents Edna (née Walzman) and Max Abrahamson, a solicitor. Although his upbringing was not devoutly religious, his family belonged to an Orthodox synagogue, and he had a

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

ceremony and attended a cheder. Both sides of his family were originally from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

; his maternal grandparents were

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

who settled in Ireland in the 1930s, while his paternal grandfather, after whom he was named, was surgeon Leonard Abrahamson, a Ukrainian Jew from

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

. Abrahamson's grandmother was a childhood friend of the future

President of Israel The president of the State of Israel (, or ) is the head of state of Israel. The president is mostly, though not entirely, ceremonial; actual executive power is vested in the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet led by the Prime Minister of Israel, pr ...

, Chaim Herzog; both were the children of Jewish immigrants to Ireland, and grew up on Bloomfield Avenue in Portobello. He was educated at The High School and

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, where he was elected a scholar in philosophy in 1988, having transferred after a year of studying theoretical physics.

Career

Abrahamson was offered a scholarship to study for a PhD in Philosophy at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He abandoned his studies after six months and returned to Ireland to take up filmmaking, initially directing commercials, filming a popular series of adverts for Carlsberg. His first film was '' Adam & Paul'', a black comedy that featured a pair of heroin addicts as they made their way around Dublin in search of a fix. The follow-up film to this was 2007's '' Garage'', starring Pat Shortt as a lonely petrol station attendant in rural Ireland. Both films won the IFTA award for best film. Also in 2007,

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

screened Abrahamson's four-part TV miniseries ''

Prosperity Prosperity is the flourishing, thriving, good fortune and successful social status. Prosperity often produces profuse wealth including other factors which can be profusely wealthy in all degrees, such as happiness and health. Competing notions ...

'', which was written in collaboration with Mark O'Halloran, the co-writer of ''Adam and Paul'' and ''Garage''. Like these two films, ''Prosperity'' focused on people on the fringes of Irish society, with each one-hour episode focusing on a specific character, including an alcoholic, a single mother, and an asylum seeker. ''Prosperity'' was nominated for six Irish Film and Television Awards in 2008 and won in two categories, Best Directing for Lenny Abrahamson, and Best Script for Mark O'Halloran. In 2012, Abrahamson won his third IFTA for best film with '' What Richard Did''. Abrahamson revealed that he was working on a film called '' Frank'', which is set in Britain, Ireland, and the USA, in a December 2012 interview with Eurochannel. "It's a comedy about a young musician who joins an eccentric band led by an enigmatic singer called Frank. It's a kind of road movie, strange, funny and quite original, I hope. It stars Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson." ''Frank'' premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in January 2014. The film is about an eccentric musician modeled after Frank Sidebottom. It stars Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He next directed the film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

, ''

'' (2015), for which he received his first

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nomination. The film was successful, both critically and commercially. In 2014, it was announced that Abrahamson would direct an adaptation of Laird Hunt's

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

novel ''Neverhome''. In 2015, Abrahamson was working on ''A Man's World'', a film based on Emile Griffith's

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

rivalry with Benny Paret. In 2016, it was confirmed that Abrahamson was attached to direct Neal Bascomb's upcoming book ''The Grand Escape'', a true story of three daredevil

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

pilots being held in Germany's most infamous POW prison. The story chronicles WWI's greatest mass prison escape and the pilots' subsequent flight to freedom. A writer to adapt Bascomb's book has not yet been attached. Element Pictures and Film4 Productions are producing.

Personal life

Abrahamson is married to Monika Pamula, a Polish-born film studies teacher; the couple have two children. Abrahamson is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Filmography

Short film * ''3 Joes'' (1991) (Also story writer) Feature film * '' Adam & Paul'' (2004) * '' Garage'' (2007) * ''Dublin 26.06.08: A Movie in 4 Days'' (2008) * '' What Richard Did'' (2012) * '' Frank'' (2014) * ''

'' (2015) * '' The Little Stranger'' (2018) TV series Commercials * AIB (2006) * Carlsberg (2006) *

Meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

(2009)

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

* Best Director – ''

'' (2015) — Nominated British Academy Television Awards * British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series – '' Normal People'' - Nominated British Academy Television Craft Awards * British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Director: Fiction – '' Normal People'' - Nominated

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

* Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special – '' Normal People: "Episode 5"'' (2020) — Nominated Irish Film & Television Awards * Best Director for Film – '' Adam & Paul'' (2004) Winner * Best Director for Film – '' Garage'' (2007) Winner * Best Director for Film – '' What Richard Did'' (2012) Winner * Best Director for Television – Prosperity (2007) Winner * Best Director for Television – '' Normal People'' (2020) Winner * Best Director for Television – ‘’ Conversations with Friends’’ (2022) Winner

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

* C.I.C.A.E. – '' Garage'' (2007) Satellite Awards * Best Director – ''

'' — (2015) Nominated

References

External links

*
Interview with Lenny Abrahamson
a
Eurochannel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahamson, Lenny 1966 births Living people Irish film directors Irish television directors Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Scholars of Trinity College Dublin Film people from Dublin (city) Irish people of Polish-Jewish descent Irish people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Irish atheists Jewish atheists 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people Stanford University people Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners People educated at The High School, Dublin People from Rathfarnham 20th-century Irish Jews 21st-century Irish Jews