Bennett Miller

Born: 1967
Where: Westchester County, New York, USA

The director won critical acclaim for his feature debut Capote featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman as the legendary American novelist.

After graduating from Mamaroneck High School he studied film at New York University's film programme but dropped out during the course.

Miller subsequently approached maverick New York bus guide Timothy "Speed" Levitch about the possibility of making a fly-on-the-wall documentary.

The resulting movie The Cruise was a critical hit and also won awards at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival.

In 2005, Miller cast Seymour Hoffman as Trueman Capote and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee in Capote, an exploration of the writer's investigation of the murder of a Kansas family.