Simon Curtis

Simon Curtis was a British filmmaker and TV producer best known for helming the 2011 historical drama "My Week with Marilyn." Born and raised in London, Curtis' first brush with show business came when he was hired as an assistant director at the famed Royal Court Theatre. It was during this time that Curtis, who himself had dreams of helming his own film and TV projects one day, learned the craft from some of England's best filmmakers, like Danny Boyle. Equipped with the confidence and knowledge he needed to make his own material, Curtis embarked on a career in TV in the early '90s and quickly made his name as an effective producer and director of made-for-TV movies in Britain. Some of the projects he worked on during this period included "Killing Me Softly" (1995), "Mrs. Dalloway" (1997), and "David Copperfield" (1999), the last of which he also directed. Curtis continued producing and directing shows for British television well into the 2000s, and went on to earn a Primetime Emmy nomination for his children's program "Pride" (BBC, 2004). By the late 2000s, however, Curtis started itching to direct a feature film. He had the opportunity when famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein approached him about directing a biopic on a brief period in the life of Marilyn Monroe. Curtis jumped at the chance and in November of 2011, "My Week with Marilyn" was released to wide critical praise. The film was also nominated for two Oscars, in addition to countless other awards, thus signaling the rise of Simon Curtis as a critically-lauded British filmmaker. Curtis' follow-up feature, 2015's "Woman In Gold," was released in the United States in April of 2015. Despite starring Ryan Reynolds and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, however, the film received generally lukewarm reviews from critics. Curtis returned to TV in 2015 with the mini-series "Indian Summer," which debuted on British television in the summer of 2015.