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4 unusual facts about Mike Leigh


John Salthouse

He is perhaps best known for creating the role of Tony in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and DI Roy Galloway in The Bill from 1984 to 1987.

Orwa Nyrabia

Mike Leigh were among more than one thousand international film professionals who joined the call.

Ray Carney

Besides his work on John Cassavetes, Carney has written on Carl Theodor Dreyer, Frank Capra, and Mike Leigh.

Yashira Jordán

She attended talks, meetings and workshops with cineastes and cinematographers like Mike Leigh, Lucrecia Martel, Wim Wenders, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Lisandro Alonso, Felix Monti, Alex McDowell and Andrej Wajda.


Georgie Smith

Before drama school, appeared as supporting artist on Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mikael Håfström's Derailed and as a dancer in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake.

Greg Cruttwell

He made his film debut in Mike Leigh's Naked (1993) and had a leading role in John Herzfeld's 2 Days in the Valley (1996), starring alongside Danny Aiello, James Spader and Jeff Daniels.

Hamid Reza Sadr

He interviewed many famous actors, directors and film critics including: Anthony Hopkins, Peter O'Toole, Mike Leigh, Jim Jarmusch, Carlos Saura, Andrei Konchalovsky, Peter Wollen, Laura Mulvey, Jeffrey Noel Smith, John Gillett, Sohrab Shahid-Sales and Farokh Ghafari.

Heather Craney

Craney has appeared in the Mike Leigh films Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002) and Vera Drake (2004), for which she was nominated for the 2005 BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Karina Fernandez

Her first major film was the multiple award-winning Happy-Go-Lucky, directed by Mike Leigh, where she played a flamenco teacher with emotional problems from Seville.

Lesley Sharp

Sharp was establishing herself as a talented actress and social realist roles in Mike Leigh's Naked (1993) and the Jimmy McGovern-penned Priest (1994) further raised her profile.

Marion Bailey

She is probably best known for her appearances in the Mike Leigh films Meantime, All or Nothing and Vera Drake, as well as Leigh's 1981 West End theatre play Goosepimples, for which she received a Theatre Critics' Award nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.

Natalie Casey

In March 2012 she played Angela in the revival of Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party at the Menier Chocolate Factory, later transferring to Wyndhams Theatre, London.

The Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University

Through Praxis, the School developed a nationally recognized program of professional training for screenwriters, and public events with Canadian and international filmmakers like Atom Egoyan, Sally Potter, Costa-Gavras, Mike Leigh, and Walter Murch.

The Tree of Wooden Clogs

British film-maker Mike Leigh praised the film in The Daily Telegraphs 'Film makers on film' interview series, on 19 October 2002.

Torben Betts

Unusually for a modern playwright, Betts works in two very distinct styles: a darkly comic social realism reminiscent of the plays of Ayckbourn or Mike Leigh and the more tragic, poetic theatre associated with dramatists like Howard Barker.


see also

Simon Channing Williams

Following Channing Williams' death, Mike Leigh started to collaborate with producer Georgina Lowe, who in 2011 took over Channing Williams' half of Thin Man Films.

Thin Man Films

Following Channing Williams' death from cancer in 2009, producer Georgina Lowe, who had assisted in the production of all Mike Leigh films since 1993, became the company's main producer, and in 2011 Mike Leigh made her his new company partner.