Steve Bendelack

Steve Bendelack got his start by directing puppets on TV, an unlikely beginning for any filmmaker. The television show was called "Spitting Image," and it featured caricatures of famous celebrities from the 1980s and 1990s. Among the more notable personages satirized were President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. After leaving the show in the late '80s, Bendelack continued to direct television comedies, albeit this time with real actors. He directed the British comedy/drama "The Royle Family," the sketch-based sitcom "The League of Gentlemen," and the first season of "Little Britain" (which later found an audience in the United States on HBO). Soon, Bendelack made the transition into movies. In 2005, he directed "The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse," a feature-film spinoff of the British television show, and the second Mr. Bean film, 2007's "Mr. Bean's Holiday."