Sam Mendes

Born: August 1 1965
Where: Reading, UK

The British director staked his place in Hollywood when he won an Oscar as best director for the dark drama American Beauty.

He has subsequently consolidated his reputation as one of the few English successes in Tinseltown with Road to Perdition and Jarhead.

Of Portuguese descent, he is the son of a university lecturer and children's authoress (his parents divorced when he was just five years old).

He attended Magdalen College School in Oxford and furthered his studies at Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge.

At only 22 years of age, he was the artistic director of the Minerva Studio Theatre in Chichester and began directing three years later at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

In 1989, he received the London Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Newcomer and within a year he had directed The Plough & The Stars at the Old Vic Theatre, and Troilus & Cressida, which starred Ralph Fiennes.

In 1992, he directed the The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (which was eventually turned into an award winning film with Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine).

In the same year, Mendes became artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London, directing Assassins and Richard III.

His revival of Oliver! in 1994 at the London Palladium set a record as the theatre's longest-running production during its four year run.

Success on the British stage led to his Broadway directorial debut when he brought Cabaret over from London and was nominated for a Tony.

The Blue Room, which he directed in 1998, won rave reviews and led to American star Nicole Kidman's performance being described as "theatrical viagra".

In 1999, he made his feature directorial debut with American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey as a deeply unfulfilled father living in suburbia.

The movie went on to win five Academy Awards, including best director for Mendes - a turn of events practically unheard of for a debut - and a best actor award for Spacey.

His next big screen outing was 2002's Road to Perdition, featuring Tom Hanks as a reluctant hitman driven to extremes to protect his son.

Alternating between cinema and the stage, Mendes was awarded the 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director for Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night.

In May 2003, he married actress Kate Winslet and the couple have a home in the Cotswolds, England.

Back on the big screen, he scored a critical success with Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a US army grunt posted to the Middle East.