Stefan Schwartz

English director and actor

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Stefan Schwartz

Schwartz in 2020

Born|  (1963-05-01) 1 May 1963 (age 60)

London, England

Citizenship| British
Canadian
Education| University of York
Occupations|

* Television director
* Film director
* writer
* actor

Years active| 1992–present
Children| 3

Stefan Schwartz (born 1 May 1963) is an English and Canadian film and television director, writer and actor,[1][2] most known for the feature film Shooting Fish[3] and his work on the BBC's Spooks and Luther, AMC's The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead as well as The Americans and The Boys.[4] He is also the creator of Talking Scripts [5] with business partner Idris Elba \- An IOS app that reads Film and TV scripts using different voices for the characters.

## Career[edit]

### 1992–2007[edit]

Stefan Schwartz teamed up with Richard Holmes at The University of York and formed The Gruber Brothers. The duo made a number of films together including their feature film debut Soft Top Hard Shoulder (1992) starring Peter Capaldi and Phyllis Logan, which won two BAFTAs in Scotland and the London Film Festival's prestigious audience award.[6] Building on this success in 1995 he directed Giving Tongue, shown as part of BBC2′s Wicked Women series[7] and in 1997 wrote and directed Shooting Fish, a crime-caper comedy starring Kate Beckinsale which won several awards and made over twenty million dollars worldwide.[8]

He then signed a three-year deal to write and direct for Miramax and wrote screenplays for them, teaming up with notable producers such as Laurence Bender and Jennifer and Suzanne Todd[9] before directing The Abduction Club (2002) for Pathe Films.[10]

His next film as writer/director was the romantic comedy The Best Man starring Stuart Townsend, Amy Smart and Seth Green in 2005.[11]

### 2007–2015[edit]

In television, he directed Hustle, the award-winning Spooks and The Ghost Train for Lynda La Plante before moving on to the season finale of the ground-breaking series, Luther, for the BBC. In the US he has directed several episodes of the critically acclaimed Crash with Dennis Hopper, joined the Starz series Camelot, which he directed for and also co-executive produced, and directed for the much praised Dexter series.

After finishing Being Human for Syfy Stefan directed in the final season of House and worked in New York on White Collar. He then went back to Showtime for another episode of Dexter.

Autumn 2012 he worked in Paris with Jean Reno on the series Jo, before travelling to Atlanta to shoot The Walking Dead for which he won Online Film & Television Association - Television Award - Best Direction in a Drama Series for The Walking Dead.

Early 2013 he directed the mid-season finale of ABC's hit show Revenge, then went back to work on the final season of Dexter.

AMC then asked him back to direct Low Winters Sun in Detroit before heading back to New York to shoot the season opener of White Collar. From there to Pittsburgh to direct Chloe Sevigny and James D'Arcy in Those Who Kill, and then to South Africa to shoot the first episode of Black Sails for Starz, (second season).

In 2014 he started the year in New York on The Americans then worked with Diane Kruger on The Bridge. He won the OFTA Television Award for Best Direction in a Drama Series – The walking Dead.

Summer 2014 he completed an episode of the new Starz show called Flesh and Bone set in the world of ballet and written by Adam Rapp and Moira Walley-Beckett. Then Power.

### 2015–2018[edit]

In 2015 Stefan returned to Cape Town to shoot two new episodes of Black Sails directing some of the most complex action/vfx sequences on television at that time. In the same year, he also directed the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead season 1 in Los Angeles, before crossing the country to direct episode 4 of The Americans season 4 in New York. He finished out the year with the season finale of NOS4A2, and episodes of the Suites spin-off Pearson and Netflix’s Nightflyers.

### 2019-2023[edit]

Season 2 of The Boys and executive producer and pilot director of Fortunate Son, followed by episodes of Apples Suspicion and Executive producing The Mosquito Coast. He has just completed work on Amazons exciting new show My Lady Jane .

## Filmography[edit]

### Film[edit]

Year  | Title  | Director  | Writer  | Notes

|
|
|
|

1990  | The Lake | Yes  | Yes  | Short film
1992  | Soft Top, Hard Shoulder | Yes  | No  |
1996  | Giving Tongue | Yes  | No  | Television film
1997  | Shooting Fish | Yes  | Yes  |
2002  | The Abduction Club | Yes  | No  |
2005  | The Best Man | Yes  | Yes  |
2020  | About Us | Yes  | No  |

### Television[edit]

#### As director[edit]

Year  | Title  | Notes

|
|

2007  | Hustle | 2 episodes
Spooks | 2 episodes
2008-09  | Crash | 7 episodes
2009  | Trial & Retribution | 1 episode
2010  | Luther | 2 episodes
2011  | Camelot | 3 episodes, also co-executive producer 5 episodes
2011-13  | Dexter | 3 episodes
2012  | Being Human | 2 episodes
House | 1 episode
2012-13  | White Collar | 2 episodes
2013  | Jo | 2 episodes, Miniseries
The Walking Dead | 1 episode
Revenge | 1 episode
Low Winter Sun | 1 episode
2014  | Those Who Kill | 1 episode
The Bridge | 1 episode
2014-18  | The Americans | 4 episodes
2015  | Flesh and Bone | 1 episode, Miniseries
2015-16  | Black Sails | 3 episodes
2015-17  | Fear the Walking Dead | 6 episodes
2015-18  | Power | 3 episodes
2018  | Nightflyers | 1 episode
2019  | NOS4A2 | 1 episode
Pearson | 1 episode
2019-20  | The Boys | 2 episodes
2020  | Fortunate Son | 4 episodes, pilot Director, Executive Producer
2021  | Suspicion | 3 episodes
2021-22  | The Mosquito Coast | 2 episodes, Executive Producer
2022-23  | My Lady Jane | 3 episodes

#### As actor[edit]

Year  | Title  | Role  | Notes

|
|
|

1986  | Strong Medicine | Pete  | Television film
1987  | Inspector Morse | Richard Bartlett  |
1989  | The Bill | Clive  |
Doctor Who | Knight Commander  |
1990  | Portrait of a Marriage | Phillip  |
1990-91  | Screen Two | Nicholas Hart, Tim  | 2 episodes

## References[edit]

1. ^ The New York Times
2. ^ Lovefilm.com
3. ^ Indiewire.com
4. ^ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0777447/[user-generated source]
5. ^ https://www.talkingscripts.com
6. ^ A, G. "Soft Top, Hard Shoulder". Time Out. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
7. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116419/[user-generated source]
8. ^ Alexander Walker, Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984-2000, Orion Books, 2005 p273
9. ^ "Schwartz pacts with Miramax". 12 February 1999.
10. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264333/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_29[user-generated source]
11. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430919/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_28[user-generated source]

## External links[edit]

* Stefan Schwartz at IMDb

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* Spain
* France
* BnF data
* United States
* Netherlands
* Poland

Other|

* IdRef