Andrew Haigh

Director, writer and producer Andrew Haigh established himself as a significant voice in LGBT drama with the lo-fi festival hit "Weekend" (2011) and naturalistic TV series "Looking" (HBO, 2014-) before achieving a similar level of acclaim with his heart-wrenching portrait of married life, "45 Years" (2015). Born in Yorkshire, England in 1972, Haigh's love of cinema flourished during his stint as an usher at London's National Film Theatre. After moving to Los Angeles to study film, he landed assistant editing jobs on various action-packed box-office hits including "Gladiator" (2000), "Black Hawk Down" (2001) and "Shanghai Knights" (2003). Haigh began his own film-making career with the short "Oil" (2003), and continued to moonlight for the rest of the decade, editing the likes of "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005), "Hannibal Rising" (2007) and "The Matador's Mistress" (2008), while also honing his skills as a writer, producer and director on the short films "Markings" (2005), "Cahuenga Blvd" (2005) and "Five Miles Out" (2009). After making the leap into feature-length films with "Greek Pete" (2009), a low-budget drama chronicling the year in the life of a London rent boy, Haigh became the toast of the festival circuit two years later with "Weekend" (2011), a beautifully-observed tale of a one-night stand which blossoms into something much more substantial. Haigh adopted a similarly docu-realistic style when he ventured into television as the executive producer and director of "Looking" (HBO, 2014-), an authentic depiction of gay life in San Francisco which gradually developed a loyal audience over the course of its first season, four episodes from which Haigh also wrote. Adapted from a short story by poet David Constantine, "45 Years" (2015) saw Haigh move further into the mainstream with an intimate portrayal of a long-time married couple whose wedding anniversary plans are disrupted by a shock revelation.