Sam Taylor-Johnson

Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson is a British filmmaker and photographer. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of the Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon.

She started working in photography and film in the 1990s, alongside fellow Young British Artists, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. She exhibited at Venice Biennale 1997, winning the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist, and receiving a Turner Prize nomination in 1998.

In 2008, Taylor-Johnson directed BAFTA and Palme d’Or nominated, Sundance-winning short film, Love You More. She then directed her debut Nowhere Boy (2009), a biographical drama about John Lennon’s adolescence. Nowhere Boy was nominated for four BAFTAs, including Outstanding Debut for Taylor-Johnson's direction.

Taylor-Johnson broke records for the biggest opening for a female director for her adaptation of best-selling novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015). In 2017 Taylor-Johnson executive produced and directed the pilot episode of Netflix Original psychological thriller Gypsy starring Naomi Watts.

As an artist she has exhibited at the Guggenheim, with solo exhibitions at The Hirshhorn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Houston, Walker Art Center Minneapolis among many other prestigious museums.

Taylor-Johnson has since adapted James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces that follows a drug- addled writers’ rehab. A Million Little Pieces stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Juliette Lewis, Odessa Young and Charlie Hunnam.

She splits her time between Los Angeles and The English countryside.