Brad Silberling

Born: 1962
Where: California, USA

Silberling hit the Hollywood heights early in his career with the smash hit City of Angels with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage.

An Americanised take on Wim Wender's art house classic Wings of Desire, it grossed over £150m and the soundtrack was one of the biggest selling in movie history.

A graduate of University of California in 1984, Silberling's first feature - Casper - made more than £200m for executive producer Steven Spielberg.

His extensive TV credits saw him direct NYPD Blue, LA Law, Civil Wars and the pilot for Judging Amy.

In 2002, he directed Moonlight Mile, which tells the story of a husband-to-be whose fiance is killed in a random shooting.

The movie was influenced by Silberling's girlfriend, the actress Rebecca Schaeffer, who was shot dead by a paranoid schizophrenic in Los Angeles in 1989.

Recent work includes the winning adaptation of children's story Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carrey and Billy Connolly.