Writer, director and producer Danny Boyle was born in Manchester in 1956 and is best known for directing feature length films like Shallow Grave, the Beach, Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting.

Boyle moved into theatre after leaving school, working for the Royal Court Theatre where he directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years. He moved into television and then feature films, directing Shallow Grave in 1995, which earned Boyle the Best Newcomer Award from the 1996 London Film Critics Circle. He followed this up with the massively popular adaption of Irving Welsh’s Trainspotting, which led critics to claim that Boyle has revitalised British Cinema in the 1990s.

Moving to Hollywood, Boyle then adapted the cult novel The Beach by Alex Garland, with whom he also worked on the Hollywood zombie blockbuster 28 Days Later and the sci-fi epic Sunshine (2007). In 2008 Boyle directed Slumdog Millionaire, the story of an impoverished child on the streets of India. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won eight of them, including Best Director.

The awards kept coming for Boyle with his next film, 127 Hours, adapted from Aron Ralston’s autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place, which detailed his struggle of being trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone in Blue John Canyon, southeastern Utah, and resorting to desperate measures in order to survive. The film was released on 5 November 2010 to critical acclaim. The film got six nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for Boyle and Best Actor for Franco.

Boyle was Artistic Director for the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in London.

FILMOGRAPHY

2014   Trance

2011 National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

2010 127 Hours

2008 Slumdog Millionaire

2008 Alien Love Triangle (Short)

2007 Sunshine

2004 Millions

2002 28 Days Later…

2000/I The Beach

1997 A Life Less Ordinary

1996 Trainspotting

1994 Shallow Grave