Penny Woolcock

Born: Buenos Aires, Argentina

The director made a name for herself for British TV docu-dramas before making her feature debut with The Principles of Lust.

Brought up in Uruguay, she joined a theatre group at 17 and was promptly arrested when the play Liberty and other Intoxications was deemed subversive.

After several years in Barcelona taking low-paid jobs and painting she managed to get a video she'd made as a youth worker shown on Channel 4.

She went onto make the docu-drama When The Dog Bites about the closure of the Durham's Consett Steelworks and four Shakespeare dramas based in a Birmingham housing estate.

In 1999, Tina Goes Shopping, written and directed by Woolcock, told the story of life on a Leeds housing estate and was BAFTA-nominated.

The documentaries The Five of Us and The Wet House followed as did the BAFTA-winning sequel Tina Takes A Break.

After The Principles of Lust, she directed the Death of Klinghoffer, based on the John Adams opera about the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro.