Andrew de Burgh

Andrew de Burgh Sidley (born 16 June 1990) is a British filmmaker. He began his career with Just One Drink, a psychological thriller short film about a mysterious woman who uses Facebook to lure two young men to her apartment for a New Year’s Eve party.

After founding the production company Sacred Ember Films, he made his feature film debut with the science fiction film The Bestowal (2019), which premiered at MegaCon.

His second feature film as writer-director, the horror thriller film The Seductress from Hell (2024) had its World Premiere at the Glendale International Film Festival and its Los Angeles premiere at the Micheaux Film Festival.

Early life and education de Burgh was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and moved with his family to Binfield, Berkshire as a child. Fascinated with movies from a young age, early favorites of his included Toy Story (1995), Small Soldiers (1998) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). He studied at Lambrook in Winkfield and spent a lot of his teenage years watching movies at the Vue Cinema in Reading, Berkshire.

He was inspired to become a professional filmmaker after watching Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005). In her review of the film, Dread Central critic Staci Layne Wilson called de Burgh "a promising young director". In 2016, he played series regular Sean Mercer in season five of the Daytime Emmy nominated web series Youthful Daze alongside Chrishell Stause, Melissa Archer, Bryan Dattilo, Sarah Joy Brown, Eden Riegel and Sean Kanan.

In 2017, he wrote, produced and directed the short silent film The Twisted Doll which premiered at the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles. In the same year, he wrote and directed the virtual reality horror short film Queen of Hearts which starred Christina Calph of the film Arthur. he wrote, produced and directed the science fiction film The Bestowal (2019) which had its World Premiere at MegaCon and screened at the Dhaka International Film Festival. It had its Virginia premiere at the Clifton Film Celebration, where it was nominated for Best Feature Film. Starburst critic Ryan Pollard called it "unique, challenging and thought-provoking". The film tells the story of a suicidal businessman (Sam Brittan) who is visited by an inter-dimensional being appearing in the form of a beautiful woman (Sharmita Bhattacharya).

In 2021, de Burgh co-produced and directed the animated short film The Legend of Santa. Based on the children's book A Magical Christmas Adventure by author Daniel Colyer, the film tells an origin story of Santa Claus based on Saint Nicholas in the 4th century.

Season One of his TV series as creator and writer-director, the crime thriller The Twisted Doll (2024-2025) released on October 31, 2024, on ZEE5 and Cpics.

His second feature film, The Seductress from Hell (2024), which starred Jason Faunt, James Hyde and Andrew Lauer had its World Premiere at the 2024 Glendale International Film Festival It tells the tale of a demonic succubus who visits Earth to torment the human race. Norman Gidney of HorrorBuzz gave it a 6 out of 10, writing "The pace could be better and the dialogue could be polished but The Demoness is at least fun". Douglas Davidson of Elements of Madness gave it a 2.5 out of 5 and compared it to the Terrifier series, stating "In an era of Art the Clown, where violence can occur for the sake of it, sometimes mayhem can scratch an itch something more cerebral can’t satisfy; yet, in the absence of intellectualism, even creature kills lose their luster".

Personal life de Burgh lives in Los Angeles and is a supporter of Liverpool F.C.. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies and playing video games.

Filmography

Feature films The Bestowal (2019) The Seductress from Hell (2024) The Demoness (2026)

Television The Twisted Doll (2024)

Short films Just One Drink (2015) The Twisted Doll (2017) Queen of Hearts (2017) The Legend of Santa (2021) The Magic of Santa Claus (2025)