Sam Mendes, born Samuel Alexander Mendes on August 1, 1965, is an English film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. He is celebrated for his innovative and thought-provoking work in both theatre and film. Mendes gained international recognition with his film directorial debut, American Beauty (1999), for which he won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director. He also directed the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), and the World War I drama 1917 (2019), earning a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director for the latter.
Mendes's notable stage productions include Cabaret, The Glass Menagerie, Othello, and The Ferryman. He served as the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London for ten years. Mendes has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, four British Academy Film Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 and was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to drama. In recent years, Mendes directed the stage production The Hills of California, which premiered on Broadway in 2024, and he received a Tony nomination for Best Director in 2025. He also co-created and directed the first episode of "The Franchise" and released a documentary film, "What They Found", on BBC in April 2025. Currently, Mendes is developing four interconnected films, each focusing on a different member of The Beatles, slated for release in April 2028.
