In 1968, at the age of 17, Bird began working in theatre as an assistant stage manager at Coventry Rep.
17 Facts About Antonia Bird
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Antonia Bird worked her way up doing a variety of jobs, including acting, stage management, publicity, theatre administration and directing in repertory and regional theatres.
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Antonia Bird directed a season of plays at The Studio at Chester Theatre and later joined Leicester's Phoenix Theatre as a director.
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Antonia Bird was named resident director at the Royal Court Theatre in 1978.
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Antonia Bird was appointed artistic director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, London's leading venue for new writing.
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Antonia Bird was recruited by the originators and founding producers of EastEnders, Julia Smith and Tony Holland, to direct the series in 1985; she directed 17 episodes, including the series' first two-hander, between the characters Den Watts and Angie Watts.
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Antonia Bird next directed the six-part adaptation of Ann Oakley's The Men's Room.
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Antonia Bird's next production was a feature-length film adaptation of A Masculine Ending.
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Antonia Bird received a BAFTA Children's Award for the 2009 BBC documentary Off By Heart, about a national poetry competition for schoolchildren.
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Antonia Bird developed feature films with Sony, Columbia, Warner Brothers, Fine Line and some American independent companies.
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Antonia Bird returned to London to shoot Face, a gangster film.
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Antonia Bird was back in the US to develop the horror satire Ravenous, with Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle and David Arquette.
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Antonia Bird was an executive producer of the 2009 Iraqi film Son of Babylon.
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In 2012, Antonia Bird directed the first four episodes of the first series of Peter Moffat's BBC period drama, The Village.
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Antonia Bird was a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Directors Guild of America, Directors UK, BECTU, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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Antonia Bird died from a rare anaplastic thyroid cancer on 24 October 2013 at the age of 62.
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Antonia Bird is survived by her husband, the TV editor Ian Ilet.