John Roberts

John Roberts is a film director and screen writer who has directed internationally acclaimed and award winning feature films, as well as television, numerous short films, TV commercials and promos.

John studied painting at the Central School of Art then went on to study direction at the National Film and Television School. There he wrote and directed the BAFTA winning short film, ‘Say Goodbye’, the BBC screened and international festival short, ‘Soulful  Shack’, and the student  ACADEMY AWARD winning  short feature, ‘This Boy’s Story’, which was broadcast as a Film on 4.

His professional feature debut  was on Warner Brothers’ ‘War of the Buttons’, with Producer David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields’),  after which Steven Speilberg  invited him to Hollywood to direct ‘Paulie’, the fourth production of the fledgling Dreamworks studio.

‘Paulie’, featuring Gena Rowlands, Tony Shaloub and Cheech Marin was a top five hit in the USA, grossed over $35 million at the box office and went on to win John a second BAFTA, for Best Children’s film in 1998.

Other work as director include, ‘Station Jim’, a feature for the BBC (starring Charlie Creed Miles, Laura Frazer, George Cole and Celia Imrie), ‘First sign of Madness’ for Carlton Television, and numerous TV spots and promos for Academy commercials.

As a screenwriter John has written commissioned screenplays for, amongst others, Warner Brothers, Jerry Weintraub, Kismet Films, and Miramax.

He co-founded the production company REPIX, in 2008, and his feature film, ‘Day of the Flowers’ (starring Eva Birthistle, Carlos Acosta, Charity Wakefield and Manuel de Blas),  was shot in Havana, Cuba in 2011 - the first British feature to be made there since 1959. ‘Day of the Flowers’ was released in 2013. John is currently in development on a political thriller, set during the Afghan war in 2013.

John is a Senior Fellow in directing screen fiction at RHUL, and convenor of the screen directing programme.