Stuart Urban

Birthday: 11 September 1958, Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK

At the age of thirteen, Stuart Urban became the youngest director to participate at Cannes with his short film, "The Virus Of War" (1972). Other credits as writer/director include An Ungentl ...Show More

At the age of thirteen, Stuart Urban became the youngest director to participate at Cannes with his short film, "The Virus Of War" (1972). Other credits as writer/director include An Ungentlemanly Act, the BBC tragicomedy about the Falklands War starring Ian Richardson and Bob Peck which he wrote and directed, and for which he won the British Academy Award (1993) for Best Single Drama. In addition, this film won Indie awards for best independent production and British drama, plus awards for script and direction in the Chicago and New York Film Festivals. Stuart's most recent directorial work was on Our Friends in the North, the top-rated and critically praised BBC drama for which he has just won his second BAFTA Award as director. The program also won Best Drama Serial at the Royal Television Society. His 1995 script credit was Deadly Voyage, a $6 million thriller for the BBC and Home Box Office about a recent mass murder of stowaways in the Atlantic. His screenplay drew much critical acclaim and was awarded the top screen writing prize (the Silver Nymph) at the 1997 Monte Carlo TV Festival. In 1997, through his company Cyclops Vision, he wrote, produced and directed the cult comedy Preaching to the Perverted, theatrically released in 23 countries and a popular title on the film festival circuit. In 2001 he wrote, produced and directed Revelation, a Cyclops Vision Production for Romulus Films. This mystical/supernatural thriller stars Terence Stamp and Udo Kier and was shot in Europe and the Mediterranean. It concerns the quest to locate and understand a relic that heralds the fusion of science and religion. Budget is $7 million and it was theatrically released in 2002. In 2007 he completed his feature documentary Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead, about his own father after 14 years in the making. It won various prizes and nominations at film festivals and was theatrically released in the UK in 2008. In autumn 2011, he began shooting his fourth theatrical feature, May I Kill You?, a London-set black comedy-thriller starring Kevin Bishop, Frances Barber, Jack Doolan, and Rosemary Leach. Hide