Tom Hooper Biography

English filmmaker Tom Hooper is best known as the Oscar-winning director of 2010’s The King’s Speech, the movie about stammering King George VI that starred Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter. Hooper grew up in London, the son of an Australian mom and an English dad. He started making movies when he was in his teens, and after he graduated from University College at Oxford in 1991, he was already an experienced director of TV commercials. By the end of the decade, Hooper was directing episodes of the children’s show Byker Grove and the serial drama East Enders. Tom Hooper’s first feature film was 2004’s Red Dust (with Chiwetel Ejiorfor), but his career really took off in the world of television, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. He won an Emmy for directing Helen Mirren in the cable TV movie Elizabeth I, and he directed all seven episodes of the Emmy-winning miniseries John Adams on HBO (starring Paul Giamatti). Hooper’s next feature film, The Damned United (2009), was well-received (and more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S.), and with his 2010 film, The King’s Speech, he solidified his reputation as a master of historical drama. His 2012 film version of the musical Les Misérables was nominated for a best picture Oscar.