Part of Emmys 2025 featuring Adam Randall, Noah Wyle, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, and Katherine LaNasa.
Rise to Fame
Two decades playing supporting roles in things like Band of Brothers and Chernobyl wasn't exactly a plan. His mother's death in 2015 was the push toward directing. The 2019 short Boiling Point, shot in one unbroken take with his friend Stephen Graham, gave him proof of concept. The 2021 feature went the same route and got four BAFTA nominations. The technique, it turned out, was the story.
In the Spotlight
Adolescence (2025) made him impossible to ignore. The Netflix miniseries, each of its four episodes filmed in a single continuous take, became the second most-watched Netflix show ever with over 540 million hours of viewing time. Eight Emmy wins, including Outstanding Directing, confirmed what the viewing numbers already said: the one-shot isn't a stunt anymore. He's built a brand around the absence of cuts.
Side Notes
Before he directed a restaurant drama, he actually worked as a head chef, which explains why Boiling Point doesn't feel like an outsider's take on kitchen culture. He and Stephen Graham go back to Band of Brothers in 2001, and that friendship turned into a creative partnership across the short, the feature, and Adolescence. The one-shot isn't incidental. For him it's the whole argument.