Born May 2, 1960 in Dorset, England, Stephen Daldry is the son of a singer mother and bank manager father.  The family moved to Taunton, Somerset where his father died of cancer when Daldry was 14.

Daldry joined a youth theatre group in Taunton where he performed for the local amateur society.  At 18, he won a Royal Air Force scholarship to read English at the University of Sheffield where he became chairman of the University Theatre Group.  After graduation, he spent a year traveling though Italy where he became a clown’s apprentice.  Back in England, he trained as an actor at Est 15 Acting School from 1982-1983.

Daldry began his professional career as an apprentice at the Sheffield Crucible from 1985-1988.  He also headed productions at the Manchester Library Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse and other venues.  In 1988, he began a romantic relationship with set designer Ian MacNeil that lasted for 13 years.

He was director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1992-1998, where he oversaw a twenty-six-million-pound development project.  He remains an associate director to this day.

Daldry made his film debut with Billy Elliot which made a star of Jamie Bell and earned Daldry his first Oscar nomination as well as nominations for Best Supporting Actress Julie Walters and Best Original Screenplay.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Daldry decided he wanted a family, broke up with McNeil, and married performance artist and magazine writer Lucy Sexton with whom he has a daughter.  Although happily married to Sexton, he still identifies as gay, saying that it is complicated.

In 2002, he was Cameron Mackintosh’s Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Saint Catherine’s College, Oxford.  That same year, he directed his second film, The Hours, which was nominated for nine Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actress Nicole Kidman, Best Supporting Actor Ed Harris, and Best Supporting Actress Julianne Moore as well as providing Daldry with his second nomination.  Kidman was the film’s only winner.

In 2005, he directed the London stage version of Billy Elliot which he took to Broadway in 2008.  That same year he directed his third film, The Reader, for which he received his third Oscar nomination for Best Director.  The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Actress Kate Winslet who won.

Daldry’s fifth film, 2011’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and Thomas Horn, received just two Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, Max von Sydow.

Daldry has since directed just two minor films.  A filmed version of the live stage musical was released in 2014.  Daldry continues to work prodigiously in theatre and as a producer and occasional director of TV projects.  He was involved with The Crown through its six seasons from 2016-2023.  He shows no signs of retiring at 64.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BILLY ELLIOT (2000)

Daldry’s first film was promoted as a film about a young boy who unexpectedly becomes a ballet dancer, but it is so much more than that.  The boy, played by Jamie Bell in a star making role, is grieving the loss of his mother and is in a strained relationship with his father and brother that is only exacerbated by his attending dance classes with the wonderful Julie Walters when he is supposed to be playing sports.  The father and brother have problems as well, dealing with the mid-1980s coal miner’s strike.  A live performance of Daldry’s equally fine 2005 London musical version, which made it to Broadway in 2008, was released in 2014.

THE HOURS (2002)

Based on Michael Cunningham’s novel, Daldry’s film takes place in three distinct eras, 1923 in which Nicole Kidman plays writer Virginia Woolf, 1951 in which housewife Julianne Moore is reading Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and in 2001 in which modern woman Meryl Streep plays a character who shares Mrs. Daldry’s first name of Clarissa.  There are other connections between the eras, but I can’t get into specifics about without spoiling some of the delicious plot turns.  In addition to the film’s three stars there are wonderful supporting turns by Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, John C. Reilly, Toni Collette, Ed Harris, Jeff Daniels and Claire Danes.

THE READER (2008)

This sexually charged, oddly heartbreaking tale set in post-WWII Germany is two stories in one – the sexual awaking of a pubescent boy by an older woman in 1958 and the trial of the woman by a court investigating Nazi war crimes in 1968.  The main character is played by Thomas Horn as a boy and by Ralph Fiennes as a young man and both are very good, but the film’s big awards winner was Kate Winslet as the woman, a role for which she won Critics Choice, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and many other awards for Best Supporting Actress, but was nominated for and won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Actress in a leading role.

EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE (2011)

A poignant and uplifting story of a nine-year-old autistic boy’s search for something left behind by his father who was killed in the September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center features an indelible performance by newcomer Thomas Horn as the boy, supported by Tom Hanks in flashback as his father and Sandra Bullock in the present as his mother.  Also on board are John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, stage great  Zoe Caldwell as his grandmother and screen legend Max von Sydow as his silent grandfather who received only the second Oscar nomination of his long career for his performance.

THE CROWN (2016-2023)

Daldry was a producer of  all sixty episodes of the groundbreaking series but only directed five including the first two starring Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, Matt Smith as Prince Philip, Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, John Lithgow as Winston Churchill,  Harriet Walter as Clemmie Churchill, and Eileen Atkins as Dowager Queen Mary.  He came back in season 2 to direct the one in which Jackie Kennedy visits the Queen and the follow-up episode about Prince Charles at school.  He also directed the series’ last episode starring Imelda Staunton and featuring Claire Foy and Olia Colman in flashbacks as the earlier versions of the Queen.

 STEPHEN DALDRY AND OSCAR

Billy Elliot (2000) – nominated – Best Director

The Hours (2002) – nominated – Best Director

The Reader (2008) – nominated – Best Director