--- name: "Matthew Warchus" canonical: "https://film.one/person/matthew-warchus" fi1m_id: "matthew-warchus" imdb_id: "nm0911334" tmdb_id: 111807 wikidata_id: "Q3299812" roles: ["Director"] born: "24 October 1966" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 81 average_as: "director" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-10-03T02:44:24.542028+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Matthew Warchus ## Identity Matthew Warchus - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/matthew-warchus - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** matthew-warchus - **IMDb ID:** nm0911334 - **TMDB ID:** 111807 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3299812 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Warchus, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3299812, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0911334/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/111807 Director. Born 24 October 1966 in Rochester, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 24 October 1966, Rochester, England, UK - **Active:** 2014–present - **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as director, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 82 (1), 2020s 80 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Warchus, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3299812, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0911334/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/111807 ## Coming up - *National Theatre at Home: Pride* (2027-07-01), Director ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical*](https://film.one/film/roald-dahls-matilda-the-musical.md) (80) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Matthew Warchus > Matthew Warchus gives actors room to be funny without belittling the people they play. We recommend *Pride* for that generosity, with the caveat that his wish to move us can make difficult things look too simple. Warchus puts people together and gives them time to talk. In *Pride* (2014), the pleasure comes from watching a cast allowed to be funny without having their characters’ convictions made ridiculous. We rate him highly here: he makes the alliance at the centre of the film worth caring about before asking us to applaud it. We laughed, then felt more moved than we expected, because the humour had given us people to care about rather than just a cause to approve. His film career has been intermittent, alongside substantial work in theatre. *Simpatico* (1999) was his first feature, a Sam Shepard adaptation which he directed and co-wrote. *Pride* was only his second feature, with the stage production of *Matilda the Musical* (2010) coming between them. The early screen work attracted less enthusiasm than his theatre; *Pride* gives us good reason to take him seriously as a film director without needing to consult the stage notices. The reservation is how tidily *Pride* handles the difficulties of solidarity. Its screenplay does some determined nudging towards tears, and Warchus does not always resist the temptation to make things reassuring. We would have preferred a little less help deciding how to feel. But the cast earns most of the uplift, and his willingness to let a social comedy be pleasurable is worth defending. Writers Stephen Beresford and Dennis Kelly, and composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, are among his collaborators. *Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical* (2022) takes a musical he directed on stage and rethinks it for the screen. His interest in making relationships matter amid the spectacle is a sound one, though *Matilda* also suggests that he can manage unruliness a little too carefully. Start with *Pride*, and allow for a screenplay that occasionally insists on the response its actors have already earned. ## Biography Matthew Warchus is an English theatre director, playwright and filmmaker. He was born on 24 October 1966 in Rochester, Kent, and studied at Bristol University. Warchus has directed numerous stage productions in the West End and on Broadway, and has been Artistic Director of London’s The Old Vic since 2015. His feature films as director are *Simpatico* (1999), *Pride* (2014) and *Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical* (2022). He is married to actress Lauren Ward. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical* (2022), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/roald-dahls-matilda-the-musical.md) - *Pride* (2014), Fi1m 82, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/pride.md) ## Complete filmography (12) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *National Theatre at Home: Pride* (2027), Director, Development Manager - *Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical* (2022), Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/roald-dahls-matilda-the-musical.md) - *A Christmas Carol* (2020), Director - *Faith Healer* (2020), Director - *Three Kings* (2020), Director - *Lungs* (2020), Director - *National Theatre Live: Present Laughter* (2019), Director - *Pride: The True Story* (2015), Director - *Pride* (2014), Director — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/pride.md) - *Our House* (2004), Director - *Simpatico* (1999), Director, Screenplay, Co-Producer - *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang*, Director ## Gallery - ![Derivative cropped, reversed photo based on File:Pride 02 (15085757719).jpg first uploaded by User:Stemoc on September 18, 2014](https://film.one/media/person/121510/gallery-1d597a2ee24f.jpg) Derivative cropped, reversed photo based on File:Pride 02 (15085757719).jpg first uploaded by User:Stemoc on September 18, 2014 — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Matthew_Warchus_in_2014_%28Reversed%29.jpg/1280px-Matthew_Warchus_in_2014_%28Reversed%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Matthew Warchus at the premiere of Pride, 2014 Toronto Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/121510/gallery-43fa76752067.jpg) Matthew Warchus at the premiere of Pride, 2014 Toronto Film Festival — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Pride_01_%2815272116802%29.jpg/1280px-Pride_01_%2815272116802%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Matthew Warchus](https://film.one/media/person/121510/gallery-ef870bcd4c13.jpg) Matthew Warchus — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Pride_02_%2815085757719%29.jpg/1280px-Pride_02_%2815085757719%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Matthew Warchus](https://film.one/media/person/121510/gallery-30f3f0be0824.jpg) Matthew Warchus — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won, 4 nominated - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical 2013: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (nominated) - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 2009: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (won), for *God of Carnage* - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 2008: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (nominated) - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 2000: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (nominated) - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1998: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (nominated) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/matthew-warchus