Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Tom Grater International Film ReporterThe Theatre Artist Fund, set up by Sam Mendes and The Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, has seen its pot rise to $5M (£3.5M) after a $1.3M (£1M) donation from Arts Council England.A second round of applications opens on Thursday (August 27) for the scheme, which was designed to support under-represented groups who have been disproportionately affected by the crisis, as well as regional performers and craftspeople, by giving them one-off grants of £1,000 per person to help them through the ongoing closures.Previous donators include Michaela Coel, Benedict Cumberbatch, Steven Spielberg and Netflix. “The Covid-19 crisis has had a huge impact on every part of our cultural sector – but individual.
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