
Stephen Frears
Department: Directing
Biography
Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer. He has directed numerous acclaimed films since the early 1980s, including My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), The Grifters (1990), High Fidelity (2000), The Queen (2006), Philomena (2013), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), and Victoria & Abdul (2017). He has received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. Frears is also known for his work on various television programs, including Fail Safe (2000), The Deal (2003), Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013), A Very English Scandal (2018), State of the Union (2019), and Quiz (2020). He has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations, with one win. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph named Frears among the 100 most influential people in British culture.
Known For

All About Desire: The Passionate Cinema of Pedro Almodovar
2001

Chéri
2009

Forever Ealing
2002

Robert Altman in England
2002

Here’s Looking at You, Boy
2007

Heavy Rain
2010

30 Years of Comic Strip
2012

Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel
2022

A Look Through His Lens
2024

She's French
2017

Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood
2011

Incident
1971

French Cinema Mon Amour
2015

Il était une fois... « The Queen »
2017

Typically British: A Personal History of British Cinema
1995

Great Directors
2009

My Friend Sam: Living for the Moment
2012

Alan Clarke: His Own Man
2000

Cast & Crew: If....
2004

Director: Alan Clarke
1991

Long Shot
1978

Seduction. Betrayal. Murder: The Making of The Grifters
2018

In The Tracks Of - Alexandre Desplat
2020

Once Upon a Time... 'Notorious'
2009

Hooray For Holyrood
1986

Who Killed British Cinema?
2018

Shooting from the Heart: Chris Menges, Cameraman
1985

Memories of Lindsay Anderson
2019

Henri Langlois vu par...
2014

Howard Hawks: American Artist
1997

Reflecting on My Beautiful Laundrette: A Conversation between Stephen Frears and Colin MacCabe
2015

Revisiting The Man in the White Suit
2019

Michael Powell
2005

Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light
2016

The Rise of the Comic Strip
2023

Alec Guinness: A Class Act
2024

100 Greatest Sexy Moments
2003

The Making of 'The Queen'
2007

Innes Lloyd: The Producer
2025

Reel Britannia
2022

Hollywood U.K.: British Cinema in the Sixties
1993

Back to Barrytown
2021

Kulturplatz
2004