Roger Michell

Roger Michell
Roger Michell at the premiere of Hyde Park on Hudson, Toronto Film Festival 2012
Born	(1956-06-05) 5 June 1956 (age 60) Pretoria, South Africa
Spouse(s)	Kate Buffery (div. 2002) Anna Maxwell Martin (? – present)

Roger Michell (born 5 June 1956) is a South African theatre, television and film director.

Michell was born in Pretoria, South Africa but spent significant parts of his childhood in Beirut, Damascus and Prague as his father was a diplomat. He was educated at Clifton College where he became a member of Brown's house in 1968. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge and in 1977, he won the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company Buzz Goodbody Award (named after the acclaimed British female director Buzz Goodbody, who committed suicide at the age of 29). Michell graduated from Cambridge in 1977.

Michell was married to the actress Kate Buffery, but they are now divorced. They have two children, daughter, actress Rosie and son Harry. His wife is now Anna Maxwell Martin, with whom he has two daughters named Nancy and Maggie.

After graduating from Cambridge in 1977, Michell moved to London and began an apprenticeship at the Royal Court Theatre and worked as assistant director to noted British playwright John Osborne and Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. During this period, he also worked with stage manager Danny Boyle, who would also go on to a successful directing career.

In 1979 he left the Royal Court Theatre and began writing and directing projects on his own. The most successful of these ventures was 1982's Private Dick a comedy which won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival. The play later debuted in London's West End and featured Robert Powell as Philip Marlowe.

In 1985, Michell joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where, over six years, he was an assistant director and then a resident director. At the RSC, Michell directed Some Americans Abroad, which transferred to Broadway in 1990.