46 Facts About Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh was born on 20 February 1943 and is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright.

Mike Leigh studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique.

Mike Leigh began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s.

Mike Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films.

Mike Leigh's purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films.

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Mike Leigh won great success with American audiences with the female led films, Vera Drake starring Imelda Staunton, Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) with Sally Hawkins, the family drama Another Year (2010), and the historical drama Peterloo (2018).

Mike Leigh's stage plays include Smelling A Rat, It's A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy and Abigail's Party.

Mike Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo.

Mike Leigh was born to Phyllis Pauline and Alfred Abraham Mike Leigh, a doctor.

Mike Leigh was born at Brocket Hall in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, which was at that time a maternity home.

Mike Leigh was brought up in the Broughton area of Salford, Lancashire.

Mike Leigh is from a Jewish family; his paternal grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who settled in Manchester.

Outside school Mike Leigh thrived in the Manchester branch of Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim.

Mike Leigh forbade him his frequent habit of sketching visitors who came to the house and regarded him as a problem child because of his creative interests.

Mike Leigh responded negatively to RADA's agenda, found himself being taught how to "laugh, cry and snog" for weekly rep purposes and so became a sullen student.

Mike Leigh later attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique on Charlotte Street.

When he had arrived in London, one of the first films he had seen was Shadows, an improvised film by John Cassavetes, in which a cast of unknowns was observed 'living, loving and bickering' on the streets of New York and Mike Leigh had "felt it might be possible to create complete plays from scratch with a group of actors.

Mike Leigh played small roles in several British films in the early 1960s, and played a young deaf-mute, interrogated by Rupert Davies, in the BBC Television series Maigret.

Mike Leigh wrote, in 1970, "I saw that we must start off with a collection of totally unrelated characters and then go through a process in which I must cause them to meet each other, and build a network of real relationships; the play would be drawn from the results.

Mike Leigh's plays are generally more caustic, stridently trying to show the banality of society.

Mike Leigh was in Australia at the time – having agreed to attend a screenwriters' conference in Melbourne at the start of 1985, he had then accepted an invitation to teach at the Australian Film School in Sydney – and he then 'buried his solitude and sense of loss in a busy round of people, publicity and talks.

Mike Leigh said later, " The whole thing was an amazing, unforgettable period in my life.

Mike Leigh's stage plays include Smelling A Rat, It's A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party.

Derek Malcolm of The Guardian noted that the film "is certainly Mike Leigh's most striking piece of cinema to date" and that "it tries to articulate what is wrong with the society that Mrs Thatcher claims does not exist.

The film's ensemble featured a cast of Mike Leigh regulars including Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

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In 2005, Mike Leigh returned to directing for the stage after many years absence with his new play, Two Thousand Years at the Royal National Theatre in London.

In 2002, Mike Leigh became chairman for his alma mater, London Film School.

Mike Leigh remained chair until March 2018, where he was succeeded by Greg Dyke.

In 2008, Mike Leigh released his a modern-day comedy, Happy-Go-Lucky starring Sally Hawkins where it debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival where she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Mike Leigh's received many Awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

In 2010, Mike Leigh released his film, Another Year starring Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville.

In 2012, Mike Leigh was selected to be jury president of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.

That year, Mike Leigh joined The Hollywood Reporter for an hourlong roundtable discussion with other directors who had made films that year Richard Linklater, Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), Angelina Jolie (Unbroken), and Christopher Nolan (Interstellar).

In 2018, Mike Leigh released another historical feature, Peterloo, based on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.

Mike Leigh uses lengthy improvisations developed over a period of weeks to build characters and storylines for his films.

Mike Leigh starts with some sketch ideas of how he thinks things might develop, but does not reveal all his intentions with the cast who discover their fate and act out their responses as their destinies are gradually revealed.

Mike Leigh begins his projects without a script, but starts from a basic premise that is developed through improvisation by the actors.

Mike Leigh speaks about the criticism Naked received: "The criticism comes from the kind of quarters where "political correctness" in its worst manifestation is rife.

Mike Leigh has cited Jean Renoir and Satyajit Ray among his favourite film makers.

Mike Leigh then lived in central London with the actress Marion Bailey.

Mike Leigh is an atheist and a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK.

In 2014, Mike Leigh publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign for UK press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while giving vital protection to the vulnerable.

In November 2019, along with other public figures, Mike Leigh signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him ahead of the 2019 UK general election.

Mike Leigh has won several prizes at major European film festivals.

Mike Leigh won the Leone d'Oro for the best film at the International Venice Film Festival in 2004 with Vera Drake.

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Mike Leigh was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 Birthday Honours, for services to the film industry.