Mark Herman - Details

Biography

MARK HERMAN hit the international spotlight when his graduation film SEE YOU AT WEMBLEY, FRANKIE WALSH won the Best Student Film Academy Award in 1987. He made his full-length feature debut in 1992 with the comedy BLAME IT ON THE BELLBOY, starring Dudley Moore, Patsy Kensit, Bryan Brown and Alison Steadman, but it was his critically-acclaimed BRASSED OFF which launched his film career. The film, which starred Pete Postlethwaite, Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald, about a group of miners overcoming the odds to become national brass band champions, opened the Sundance Film Festival in 1996. It went on to become a British commercial hit and won the French Cesar for Best European Film in 1998, the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy, and the Writers' Guild Award for Best Screenplay.

He followed it up with LITTLE VOICE, based on the play by Jim Cartwright and starring Jane Horrocks, Brenda Blethyn, Michael Caine and Ewan McGregor. It not only became a smash hit in the UK, grossing over £8m, but also won critical plaudits around the world, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Blethyn and a Golden Globe Best Actor Award for Caine.

Herman is also an accomplished songwriter, having written a string of hits for British band The Christians.