David Yates

David Yates
Biographical information
Born	1963
Gender	Male
Height	5'10" (1.78m)
Career
Years active	1988 - present
In Harry Potter	Director ([HP5 film][HP6 film] [HP7 film])

David Yates is an English BAFTA and Emmy award-winning film director. He has directed 16 films including his most recent, the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Early life

David Yates was born in St Helens, England in 1962. From an early age he was fascinated with the works of film directors, with Steven Speilberg's 1974 film Jaws and the 1951 film The Thing from Another World being two favourites in particular. Yates went to see Jaws in the cinema, where at least a dozen of his subsequent 35 viewings took place. He attempted to understand the production and story elements of motion pictures, observing the characterization, pacing and suspense and with each viewing, surveying the reactions of the audience. He began pulling friends and family into the cast of short films at the age of 14, using a camera his mother had given him. Yates followed up on a more academic track, taking up the subjects of sociology, political studies, and literature at St Helens College before moving onto the University of Essex.

Career

Living in Swindon in the 1980s, Yates became a freelancer for Create Studios whose facilities helped him make his first serious film, When I Was a Girl. The short film later made the festival circuit and helped with his acceptance into the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, where he studied under its directing program. When I Was a Girl also marked Yates’ entry into the UK’s entertainment industry, with the BBC hiring him to make the dramatic short Oranges and Lemons in 1991. He also directed the short film The Weaver's Wife, along with Good Looks and an episode of the film studies programme, Moving Pictures.

From 1994 to 1995, Yates directed several episodes of the ITV police series The Bill, before directing three episodes of Tale of Three Seaside Towns and Punch. He then moved into his first feature film, a small independent called The Tichborne Claimant.

Yates returned to television to helm several episodes of the BBC miniseries, "The Sins, along with directing a faithful adaptation of The Way We Live Now. Yates, along with writer Andrew Davies and producer Nigel Stafford-Clark, shared a BAFTA Award win for Best Drama Serial. One year later, Yates was back with a nomination for the short film, Rank.

Yates then directed State of Play", a six-part thriller scripted by Paul Abbott which was met with positive reviews. The critically acclaimed serial became a major turning point in Yates' career, with him taking on more high-profile projects such as the television film "The Young Visiters and the two-part series, Sex Traffic, which won 8 BAFTA Awards.

Yates gained an Emmy Award win for his direction of 2005's The Girl in the Café, starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald. The film won 3 Emmy Awards, along with four other nominations.

Filmography

Yates at the Los Angeles Harry Potter premiere

Director

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
• The Girl in the Café (2005)
• Sex Traffic (2004)
• The Young Visiters (2003)
• State of Play (6 episodes, 2003)
• Rank (2002)
• The Way We Live Now (4 episodes, 2001)
• The Sins (3 episodes, 2000)
• The Tichborne Claimant (1998)
• Punch (1996)
• Tale of Three Seaside Towns (3 episodes, 1995)
• The Bill (5 episodes, 1994-1995)
• Moving Pictures (1 episode, 1994)
• Good Looks (1992)
• Oranges and Lemons (1991)
• The Weaver's Wife (1991)
• When I Was a Girl (1988)

Producer

• Tale of Three Seaside Towns (3 episodes, 1995)
• When I Was a Girl (1988)

Writer

• When I Was a Girl (1988) (screenplay)

External links

• David Yates at the Internet Movie Database
• David Yates
• Article on David Yates