Michael Keillor

Writer/Director

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Film, TV & Theatre

Agent: Michelle Archer

Michelle Archer

Assistant: Grace Baxter

gbaxter@unitedagents.co.uk

Film, TV & Theatre

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Michael Keillor grew up in the Scottish countryside, telling stories, taking photographs and watching movies on VHS.
After law school, travel and a few years on set, Michael picked up a camera, wrote down a script and found his feet, writing and directing stories of his own.

A Channel 4 commission and numerous shorts led to TV and Michael garnered a Scottish BAFTA Best Director nomination for BBC One drama YOUNG JAMES HERRIOT. A second Best Director nomination followed with the anti-corruption series LINE OF DUTY. Michael kicked off the third season of the Jed Mercurio thriller, which earned rave reviews, multiple series award nominations and currently holds the mantel of being the highest rated drama on BBC 2.

Driven by good writing, Michael has also worked with Andrew Davies, Peter Moffat, Ben Richards and JK Rowling, bringing her much loved detective, Cormoran Strike to screen in STRIKE: THE CUCKOO’S CALLING. This opening three-part adaptation set up Rowling’s STRIKE series. which launched on BBC One in summer 2017 to excellent reviews, then went on to premiere on HBO/Cinemax in 2018.

Michael is currently directing ROADKILL, starring Hugh Laurie and Helen McCrory, for BBC1 and The Forge. Prior to this he directed CHIMERICA for Playground Entertainment/Channel 4, the TV adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood's Olivier award-winning play.

“A strikingly intelligent drama, capturing big ideas without sacrificing story or character, and making the personal political and back again – particularly in the scenes set in China.” - Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

Michael is also represented in the US by Phil D'Amecourt, Melissa Myers and Ryan Draizin at WME, and Attorney Michael Schenkman.

http://www.michaelkeillor.com/

Television

Production	Company	Notes
ROADKILL 2019	The Forge / BBC 1	Director and Executive Producer 4-part Drama. Writer: David Hare. Producer: Andy Litvin Exec Producers: Mark Pybus, Lucy Richer. Starring: Hugh Laurie and Helen McCrory A fictional thriller about self-made, forceful and charismatic politician Peter Laurence. Peter’s public and private life seems to be falling apart. As the personal revelations spiral, he is shamelessly untroubled by guilt or remorse, expertly walking a high wire between glory and catastrophe as he seeks to further his own agenda whilst others plot to bring him down. However events show just how hard it is, for both an individual and a country, to leave the past behind. With enemies so close to home, can Peter Laurence ever out-run his own secrets to win the ultimate prize?
CHIMERICA 2018 - 2019	Playground Entertainment/Channel 4	Director 4-part Drama. Writer: Lucy Kirkwood. Producer: Adrian Sturges. Executive Producers: Lucy Kirkwood, Sophie Gardiner, Colin Callender. Starring: Alessandro Nivola and Cherry Jones A photojournalist travels to China with the hopes of finding out who the mysterious man was who was photographed standing defiantly in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square twenty years ago. Adaptation of the Olivier award-winning play.
STRIKE: THE CUCKOO'S CALLING 2017	BBC/HBO/Bronte	Lead Director. Producer: Jackie Larkin Executive Producers: Ruth Kenley Letts, Neil Blair, JK Rowling. Starring: Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke Adapted from the first novel in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels by JK Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
LINE OF DUTY III 2015	BBC2 / World Productions	Lead Director. 3 episodes. Creator and Writer: Jed Mercurio. Producer: Peter Norris. Executive Producer: Simon Heath and Jed Mercurio. Starring: Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Stephen Graham. Highest-rating BBC2 drama since modern TV ratings began. Nominated, Best Drama Series, Royal Television Society Awards, 2017. Nominated, Best Writer (Drama), Royal Television Society Awards, 2017. Nominated, Best Drama Series, TV Choice Awards, 2016. Nominated, Best Director, Bafta Scotland Awards, 2016. Nominated, Best Drama Series, Broadcast Awards, 2017.
CRITICAL 2014	Sky One / Hat Trick	Director. 3 episodes. Creator: Jed Mercurio. Producer: Chris Hall. Exec Producer: Mark Redhead / Cameron Roach. Starring: Lennie James and Kimberley Nixon.
SILK III 2013	BBC 1	Director. 2 episodes. Creator: Peter Moffat. Producer: Matt Strevens. Executive Producer: Hilary Salmon. Starring: Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones
MR SELFRIDGE 2012	ITV Studios	Director. 3 episodes, including series finale. Creator and Writer: Andrew Davies Producer: Chrissy Skinns. Exec Producer: Kate Lewis. Starring: Jeremy Piven
YOUNG JAMES HERRIOT 2011	BBC 1/ KoCo Media	3 part series about the life of the young Vet. Producer: Alan J. Wands. Writer: Ann McManus and Eileen Gallagher Exec Producer: Cameron Roach. * Nominated for Best Director at British Academy Awards Scotland, 2012. * Nominated for Best Actor for Iain De Caestecker at British Academy Awards Scotland, 2012.
SHAMELESS VIII 2011	Company Television/ C4
HOLBY CITY 2011	BBC 1
EASTENDERS: E20 2010	BBC 3	* Rose D'Or Nominee, 2010.
THE BILL 2009	ITV 1
EASTENDERS 2008	BBC 1
DOCTORS 2007	BBC 1
DREAM TEAM 2006	Sky

Short Films

Production	Company	Notes
LIAM & LENKA 2014	Warp Films/BFI	Writer and Director. Love on the run with a girl and a gun. Producer: Ally Gipps. Starring Iain De Caestecker, Katarina Cas. *Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014 Premiere.
MUNRO 2010	BBC, Scottish Screen & Lighthouse Arts	Writer and Director. 15'. Father and son lost in the Highlands. Starring David Hayman, Jamie Michie. * Encounter Short Film Festival, 2009. * Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2010. * Austin Film Festival, 2010.
LABOUR 2009	UK Film Council, Scottish Screen & Digicult	15'. Life, for a young man and an old soul. Starring Michael Socha. * Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010.
HAPPY SLAPZ 2006	Channel 4 'Coming Up' 2005	Writer and Director. 23'. Gang rivalry tears a friendship apart. Starring Daniel Anthony, Josef Altin, Aml Ameen. *Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2006.