Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh is an English writer and director of film and theatre. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before honing his directing skills at East 15 Acting School and 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 '80s his career moved between theatre work and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style.