Stephen Daldry

Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway and an Olivier Award for his work in the West End. He has received three Academy Awards nominations for Best Director, for the films Billy Elliot, The Hours (2002), and The Reader (2008).

From 2016 to 2020, he produced and directed the Netflix television series The Crown, for which he received one Producers Guild Award nomination, one Producers Guild Award win, six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and two Primetime Emmy Awards win for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series. Thus Daldry has been recognised for his direction by nominations for theatre, television, and film.

Early years Daldry was born on May 2, 1960, in Dorset, the son of singer Cherry (née Thompson) and bank manager Patrick Daldry. The family moved to Taunton, Somerset, where his father died of cancer when Daldry was aged 14.

Daldry joined a youth theatre group in Taunton, Somerset and performed as Sandy Tyrell in Hay Fever for the local amateur society, Taunton Thespians. At age 18, he won a Royal Air Force scholarship to read English at the University of Sheffield, where he became chairman of the Sheffield University Theatre Group.

After graduation, he spent a year travelling through Italy, where he became a clown's apprentice. He then trained as an actor on the postgraduate course at East 15 Acting School from 1982 to 1983, now part of the University of Essex.

Career Daldry began his career as an apprentice at the Sheffield Crucible from 1985 to 1988, working under artistic director Clare Venables. He also headed productions at the Manchester Library Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Stratford East, Oxford Stage, Brighton and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1992 to 1998, where he headed the £26 million development scheme. He was also artistic director of London's Gate Theatre (1989–92) and the Metro Theatre Company (1984–86). He is currently on the Board of the Young and Old Vic Theatres and remains an associate director of the Royal Court Theatre. He was the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting professor of Contemporary Theatre for 2002 at St Catherine's College, Oxford.

Daldry made his feature film directorial debut with Billy Elliot (2000), which launched the film career of Jamie Bell. His next film was The Hours, which earned Nicole Kidman her first Best Actress win at the Academy Awards. He went on to direct a stage musical adaptation of Billy Elliot, and in 2009 his work earned him a Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical. He has also made a film version of The Reader (2008), based on the book of the same name and starring Kate Winslet, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes. The film won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Kate Winslet. Daldry's fourth film was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, an adaptation of the book of the same name written by Jonathan Safran Foer, starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and Max von Sydow. The screenplay was written by Eric Roth. The film received a nomination for Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards and a nomination for von Sydow for Best Supporting Actor.

Daldry was initially slated to direct a Star Wars spin off film about Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi but the film was later scrapped due to the commercial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story. However, ideas from Daldry's originally planned film were repurposed for the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney + limited series directed by Deborah Chow and released in 2022. Daldry received credit as a consulting producer. In July 2022, it was revealed that Daldry would work with Sonia Friedman to develop a play based on the hit Netflix television show Stranger Things. The play entitled Stranger Things: The First Shadow premiered in December 2023 at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End.

Personal life Daldry was in a relationship with set designer Ian MacNeil for 13 years. They met at an outdoor production of Alice in Wonderland in Lancaster in 1988 and, after settling in Camberwell, began collaborating on theatrical productions.

Daldry married American performance artist and magazine editor Lucy Sexton, with whom he had a daughter. However, he continued to refer to himself as gay, saying the public "[doesn't] like confusion". He has also suggested that the pair married so he could get health insurance, despite receiving this through his DGA affiliation.

Works Film Year Title Distribution 2000 Billy Elliot Universal Pictures 2002 The Hours Miramax Films 2008 The Reader The Weinstein Company 2011 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Warner Bros. Pictures 2014 Trash Universal Pictures 2021 Together BBC Film / Bleecker Street

Television Year Title Notes 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad Opening Ceremony "Isles of Wonder" 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad Closing Ceremony "A Symphony of British Music" 2016–23 The Crown 5 episodes 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi Consulting Producer

Short film

Theatre Broadway

London The Audience with Helen Mirren, Gielgud Theatre (2013) The Audience with Kristin Scott Thomas, Apollo Theatre (2015) The Inheritance, Noël Coward Theatre (2019) Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Phoenix Theatre (2023) A Number, Royal Court Theatre Far Away (also Albery Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop) Via Dolorosa (also the Duchess Theatre) Rat in the Skull, RCT Body Talk, RCT The Kitchen, RCT The Editing Process, RCT Search And Destroy, RCT An Inspector Calls, Royal National Theatre Machinal, Royal National Theatre Billy Elliot: The Musical, Victoria Palace Theatre (2005) Skylight, Wyndham's Theatre Kyoto, @sohoplace (2025)

Detailed theatreography The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool, England, then Theatre Royale, Stratford, England, 1988 An Inspector Calls, York Theatre Royal, 1988 Judgement Day, Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 1989 Figaro Gets Divorced, Gate Theatre, London, 1990 Cutting Room, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, 1990 Our Man in Marzibah and Rousseau's Tale (double-bill), Gate Theatre, 1991 Damned for Despair, Gate Theatre, 1991 Jerker, Gate Theatre, 1991 (With Annie Castledine) Pioneers in Ingolstadt, Gate Theatre, 1991 (With Annie Castledine) Purgatory in Ingolstadt, Gate Theatre, 1991 Manon Lescaut, Dublin Grand Opera, 1992 An Inspector Calls, National Theatre Company, Lyttelton Theatre, London, 1992, then Royale Theatre, New York City, 1994–1995, *later Garrick Theatre, London, 1995, finally Playhouse Theatre, London, 2016–17 Search and Destroy, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1993 Machinal, National Theatre Company, Lyttelton Theatre, 1993 The Europeans, 1993 The Kitchen, Royal Court Theatre, 1994 The Editing Process, Royal Court Theatre, 1994 Rat in the Skull, Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1995 The Libertine, Royal Court Theatre, 1995 The Man of Mode, Royal Court Theatre, 1995 Body Talk, Royal Court Theatre, 1996 This Is a Chair, in London International Festival of Theatre, London, 1997 Via Dolorosa (solo show), Royal Court Theatre, 1998, then Booth Theatre, New York City, 1999 Far Away, Royal Court Theatre, 2000, then New York Theatre Workshop, New York City, 2002–2003 A Number, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, 2002, then New York Theatre Workshop, 2002–2003 The Jungle, Young Vic, 2017–2018, then St. Ann's Warehouse, 2018 Kyoto, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (2024)

Awards and honours

Directed Academy Award performances Under Daldry's direction, these actors have received Academy Award nominations and wins for their performances in their respective roles.