Mendes, Sam (1965- )

English theatre and film director. As artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre 1992-2003, he achieved a range of award-winning productions, including The Blue Room, starring US film actor Nicole Kidman, and Cabaret. His film debut, American Beauty (1999), was a critical and popular success, winning five Academy Awards in 2000, including Best Director and Best Picture. His second film, Road to Perdition (2002), was also critically acclaimed.

He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1990, and directed plays such as Troilus and Cressida (1990), starring Ralph Fiennes, and Richard III (1992-93). Mendes's other productions at the Donmar include To the Green Fields Beyond (2000), Uncle Vanya (2002), and Twelfth Night (2002).

He was born in Reading, England, and grew up with a great passion for cricket, teaching the sport for a year at Summer Fields school in Oxford after leaving school. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1987 and joined the Chichester Festival Theatre. In 1989 he directed The Cherry Orchard, starring Judi Dench, for which he won a Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer. He married English actor Kate Winslet in 2003.