Michael “Mike” Leigh, OBE (born 20 February 1943) is a 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).
His films and stage plays, according to the critic Michael Coveney, “comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone’s in the British theatre and cinema over the same period.” Coveney further noted Leigh’s role in helping to create stars – Liz Smith in Hard Labour, Alison Steadman in Abigail’s Party, Brenda Blethyn in Grown-Ups, Antony Sher in Goose-Pimples, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Meantime, Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet, David Thewlis in Naked – and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years – including Sheila Kelley, Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Eric Richard, Julie Walters – “comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent.” Ian Buruma, writing in the New York Review of Books in January 1994, noted: “It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh’s London is as distinctive as Fellini’s Rome or Ozu’s Tokyo.”
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Mike Leigh Biography / Wiki
| Name | Mike Leigh |
| Also Know | |
| Gender | Male |
| Known For | Directing |
| Place of Birth | Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK |
| Date of Birth | 1943-02-20 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 79 |
| Deathday |
Mike Leigh Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| Mike Leigh: Making Plays | Himself | 1982-09-04 | Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays…. |
| The One and Only Mike Leigh | Himself | 2014-11-24 | In a revealing documentary, Mike Leigh, director of Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake and Abigail’s Party among many others, talks to Alan Yentob about a… |
| Mike Leigh: The Conversation | Interviewee | 2000-04-23 | An interview with British film director Mike Leigh produced for BBC-TV…. |
| All About ‘Abigail’s Party’ | Himself | 2007-01-01 | A look at the production of Play for Today: Abigail’s Party (1977)…. |
| Looking for Truffaut | Self | 2009-01-01 | Documentary about François Truffaut who is one of the most respected directors in the history of cinema…. |
| Scenes from A Separation | Self | 2018-10-04 | Scenes from A Separation… |
| Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain | 2000-12-31 | Documentary about Humphrey Jennings, an English documentary filmmaker from the 1930s to 1950…. | |
| Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today | Himself | 2020-10-12 | Marking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies… |
| What Is Cinema? | Self | 2013-09-06 | Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, Da… |
| Two Left Feet | Jim | 1965-05-23 | Based on David Stuart Leslie’s novel Two Left Feet is a story about Alan Crabbe (Michael Crawford a callow youth desperate for a date with any girl wh… |
| Vittorio D. | Self | 2009-09-17 | A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family…. |
| Welcome to Hollywood | Mike Leigh | 1998-10-01 | A film director (Adam Rifkin) decides to chart the course of a young actor (Tony Markes) as he tries to make it in Hollywood…… |
Mike Leigh Directing Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Happy-Go-Lucky | Director | 2008-04-18 | A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her…. |
| Vera Drake | Director | 2004-10-22 | Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family…. |
| Secrets & Lies | Director | 1996-05-24 | With both her adoptive parents now dead, a black optometrist decides to make contact with her birth mother, but is shocked to find out that she is whi… |
| Naked | Director | 1993-09-14 | An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey…. |
| Abigail’s Party | Director | 1977-11-01 | Beverly wears low-cut dresses, too much make-up, and has a reputation as a man-eating monster. She turns a social get-together between married couples… |
| All or Nothing | Director | 2002-05-17 | Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children… |
| Life Is Sweet | Director | 1990-11-15 | Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary schoo… |
| A Sense of History | Director | 1992-01-01 | Jim Broadbent wrote and starred in this short film directed by none other than Mike Leigh. As a member of the landed gentry, the 23rd Earl of Leete ha… |
| Another Year | Director | 2010-11-05 | During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives…. |
| Topsy-Turvy | Director | 1999-12-15 | After their production “Princess Ida” meets with less-than-stunning reviews, the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan is strained to breaking. Th… |
| High Hopes | Director | 1989-01-13 | Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who’s aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum’s ghastly… |
| The Short & Curlies | Director | 1988-09-29 | A short comedy by Mike Leigh about the romance between a young woman and a man who communicates only through jokes and humor…… |
| Career Girls | Director | 1997-06-01 | Two young women reunite and rekindle their friendship after having said goodbye at their college graduation, six years earlier…. |
| Meantime | Director | 1983-10-16 | A working-class family in London’s East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. On… |
| Bleak Moments | Director | 1971-01-01 | Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neig… |
| Two Mikes Don’t Make a Wright | Director | 1993-04-05 | Theatrical packaging of three comic shorts: Dean Parisot and Steven Wright’s “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings” (1988), Michael Moore’s “Pets or Me… |
| A Running Jump | Director | 2012-06-24 | Gary attempts to buy a second-hand car. What should be a straightforward task is turned into something of a quest by various people, including dodgy … |
| Five-Minute Films: The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final | Director | 1982-09-05 | A slow-witted couple decide to start a family…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Old Chums | Director | 1982-09-06 | A man relentlessly bombards another man with small talk, while the other man tries to fend for himself while using crutches…. |
| Five-Minute Films: A Light Snack | Director | 1982-09-08 | A window cleaner fancies a sausage roll, but all is not well in the sausage roll factory…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Probation | Director | 1982-09-07 | A boy goes to see his probation officer…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Afternoon | Director | 1982-09-09 | A couple of old friends drown their sorrows together while reveling in the naivety of a young newly-wed…. |
| Grown-Ups | Director | 1980-11-27 | Dick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next… |
| Four Days in July | Director | 1984-11-29 | Two couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland…. |
| Who’s Who | Director | 1979-02-05 | Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife Apr… |
| The Permissive Society | Director | 1975-04-09 | During an evening spent at his house with his sister, a girl realizes that she doesn’t really have much in common with her boyfriend…. |
| The Kiss of Death | Director | 1977-01-10 | Trevor is an extremely shy undertaker’s assistant. He always tags along with his good friend Ronnie, when he goes to the pub with his girlfriend Sandr… |
| Mr. Turner | Director | 2014-10-31 | Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful … |
| Nuts in May | Director | 1976-01-13 | A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them…. |
| Home Sweet Home | Director | 1982-03-16 | Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner…. |
| Peterloo | Director | 2018-11-01 | An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manches… |
| Hard Labour | Director | 1973-03-12 | A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence…. |
| A Mug’s Game? | Director | 1973-03-08 | Transmitted as part of BBC Schools series Scene, 8 March 1973. Actor improvisations around the theme of gambling devised by Mike Leigh…. |
| Knock For Knock | Director | 1976-11-21 | Mr Purvis wants comprehensive coverage for his car, but he’s at the mercy of the Insurance Salesman – who seems reluctant to let him have it…. |
| Untitled Mike Leigh Project | Director | Plot unknown. This latest production is said to feature an all black cast…. | |
| Director | Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more tha… | ||
Mike Leigh Production Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Mike Leigh’s the Pirates of Penzance – English National Opera | Production Director | 2015-05-19 | Sentimental pirates, blundering policeman, absurd adventures and improbable paradoxes – Gilbert and Sullivan’s dazzling The Pirates of Penzance co… |
Writing
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Happy-Go-Lucky | Screenplay | 2008-04-18 | A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her…. |
| Vera Drake | Writer | 2004-10-22 | Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family…. |
| Secrets & Lies | Writer | 1996-05-24 | With both her adoptive parents now dead, a black optometrist decides to make contact with her birth mother, but is shocked to find out that she is whi… |
| Naked | Writer | 1993-09-14 | An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey…. |
| All or Nothing | Writer | 2002-05-17 | Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children… |
| Life Is Sweet | Writer | 1990-11-15 | Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary schoo… |
| Another Year | Writer | 2010-11-05 | During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives…. |
| Topsy-Turvy | Writer | 1999-12-15 | After their production “Princess Ida” meets with less-than-stunning reviews, the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan is strained to breaking. Th… |
| High Hopes | Writer | 1989-01-13 | Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who’s aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum’s ghastly… |
| Career Girls | Writer | 1997-06-01 | Two young women reunite and rekindle their friendship after having said goodbye at their college graduation, six years earlier…. |
| Meantime | Writer | 1983-10-16 | A working-class family in London’s East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. On… |
| Nuts in May | Writer | 1976-01-13 | A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them…. |
| Bleak Moments | Writer | 1971-01-01 | Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neig… |
| The Kiss of Death | Writer | 1977-01-10 | Trevor is an extremely shy undertaker’s assistant. He always tags along with his good friend Ronnie, when he goes to the pub with his girlfriend Sandr… |
| Abigail’s Party | Writer | 1977-11-01 | Beverly wears low-cut dresses, too much make-up, and has a reputation as a man-eating monster. She turns a social get-together between married couples… |
| Five-Minute Films: The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final | Writer | 1982-09-05 | A slow-witted couple decide to start a family…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Old Chums | Writer | 1982-09-06 | A man relentlessly bombards another man with small talk, while the other man tries to fend for himself while using crutches…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Probation | Writer | 1982-09-07 | A boy goes to see his probation officer…. |
| Five-Minute Films: A Light Snack | Writer | 1982-09-08 | A window cleaner fancies a sausage roll, but all is not well in the sausage roll factory…. |
| Five-Minute Films: Afternoon | Writer | 1982-09-09 | A couple of old friends drown their sorrows together while reveling in the naivety of a young newly-wed…. |
| The Short & Curlies | Writer | 1988-09-29 | A short comedy by Mike Leigh about the romance between a young woman and a man who communicates only through jokes and humor…… |
| Peterloo | Writer | 2018-11-01 | An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manches… |
| Hard Labour | Writer | 1973-03-12 | A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence…. |
| Mr. Turner | Writer | 2014-10-31 | Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful … |
| A Running Jump | Writer | 2012-06-24 | Gary attempts to buy a second-hand car. What should be a straightforward task is turned into something of a quest by various people, including dodgy … |
| The Permissive Society | Writer | 1975-04-09 | During an evening spent at his house with his sister, a girl realizes that she doesn’t really have much in common with her boyfriend…. |
| Who’s Who | Writer | 1979-02-05 | Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife Apr… |
| Grown-Ups | Writer | 1980-11-27 | Dick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next… |
| Four Days in July | Writer | 1984-11-29 | Two couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland…. |
| Home Sweet Home | Writer | 1982-03-16 | Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner…. |
| A Mug’s Game? | Writer | 1973-03-08 | Transmitted as part of BBC Schools series Scene, 8 March 1973. Actor improvisations around the theme of gambling devised by Mike Leigh…. |
| Knock For Knock | Writer | 1976-11-21 | Mr Purvis wants comprehensive coverage for his car, but he’s at the mercy of the Insurance Salesman – who seems reluctant to let him have it…. |
| Untitled Mike Leigh Project | Writer | Plot unknown. This latest production is said to feature an all black cast…. | |
| Writer | Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more tha… | ||
Credit: TMDB
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