Mike Leigh Age: How Old Is Mike Leigh?

Mike Leigh OBE FRSL is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright.

He was born on 20 February 1943 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England and is 79 years as of 2022.

Leigh was educated at at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique.

He started his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and ’80s.

His most notable works include:

• The black comedy-drama Naked (1993), for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes,
• The Oscar-nominated, BAFTA- and Palme d’Or-winning drama Secrets & Lies (1996),
• The Golden Lion-winning working-class drama Vera Drake (2004), and
• The Palme d’Or-nominated biopic Mr. Turner (2014).

His other well-known films include:

• The comedy-dramas Life Is Sweet (1990),
• Meantime (1983),
• Career Girls (1997),
• The Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film Topsy-Turvy (1999) and
• The bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002).

Leigh won great success with American audiences with the female led films:

• Vera Drake (2004) starring Imelda Staunton,
• Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) with Sally Hawkins,
• The family drama Another Year (2010), and
• The historical drama Peterloo (2018).

His stage plays include Smelling A Rat, It’s A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy and Abigail’s Party.