Michael Grandage

Director and producer Michael Grandage was born in Yorkshire, England and grew up in the Penzance section of Cornwall. Grandage was trained as an actor at the Royal Center of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1984. He worked as an actor for over a decade for theater companies like The Royal Exchange and the Royal Shakespeare Company, before making the transition to director. In 1986, Grandage made his debut as a director with Arthur Miller's play "The Last Yankee" performed at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. Two years later he made his debut on the London stage directing George Bernard Shaw's "The Doctor's Dilemma." Between 2002 and 2012 Grandage was the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, a highly reputed non-profit theater in the Covent Garden district of London. Under Grandage's directorship the theatre's repertoire expanded, and he made an effort to create affordable theater opportunities, as well as create space for the works of young and emerging directors. In 2010 Grandage extended his theatrical reach to the opera, directing a production of Billy Budd at the Glyndebourne. In 2011 Grandage partnered with James Bierman, a former Executive Producer at the Donmar, and the two established the Michael Grandage Company, with a focus on developing projects for theatre, TV, and film. In 2014 the pair embarked on work on their first film, "Genius", an exploration of the relationship between editor Max Perkins and author Thomas Wolfe.