Terry George

Born: 1952
Where: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

The director attracted international acclaim for his Oskar Schindler-style story of the African tribal genocide, Hotel Rwanda.

Avowedly political (he was interned as a suspected IRA member in Northern Ireland in the 1970s), George first worked as a playwright.

He began his career writing and producing plays at New York's Irish Arts Centre in the 1980s and combined his journalistic and theatrical talents for his first script.

In 1993, he co-wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Jim Sheridan's drama about the Guildford Four's fight to clear their name, In The Name of the Father.

Three years later he made his directorial debut with Some Mother's Son, the story of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Writing for Sheridan again, he penned The Boxer, which told the story of a former IRA man seeking a life in the ring after prison.

George's next directorial effort - the TV movie A Bright Shining Lie - saw the action shifting from Northern Ireland to Vietnam.

In 2002, he wrote the screenplay for the World War II drama Hart's War with Bruce Willis and also worked on the fire drama Ladder 49.

Two years later he directed the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle as the hotel boss who saves the lives of countless Tutsi tribes people.