Otto Bathurst

Otto Bathurst
Bathurst in 2015
Born	Otto Benjamin Charles Bathurst[1] (1971-01-18) 18 January 1971 (age 53)[1] Hammersmith, London England[2]
Occupations	Television director film director
Children	Three[3]

Otto Benjamin Charles Bathurst (born 18 January 1971)^[1] is a British television and film director. In 2014, he won a BAFTA for his work on BBC drama Peaky Blinders.^[4][5] He was also previously BAFTA nominated for his work on BBC series Criminal Justice and Five Days.^[6]

Bathurst was born on 18 January 1971,^[1] the son of Elizabeth Mary (Thompson)^[7] and Christopher Bathurst, 3rd Viscount Bledisloe.^[8] He grew up in Dudley and Bridgnorth.^[9] He began to study engineering at university, but dropped out to move to London and work in film.^[9]

Bathurst lives in Somerset, England. He has three children, the first, Eric, was born in 2006 and the second, Ursula, in 2008.^[10][11] The Bathurst family has resided in the town of Bath, Somerset since 2013,^[3][12][11] Otto enjoys cooking and his favourite restaurant serves classic Indian cuisine.^[13]

The Bathursts are followers of the “socially dangerous” Universal Medicine cult and dedicated to its leader, Serge Banhayon’s teachings. ^{[14][10][12][15]} Based in Frome, Somerset, the sect is reportedly popular with middle-class professionals and in 2019 it was ruled as a "socially harmful cult" by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The Times reported that Bathurst "is the best known of the group's British adherents" and first identified him as a follower.^[16][14]

Bathurst began his career in editing and then worked on commercials, before moving into television.^[17] He has taught filmmaking at Oxford and London universities.^[15]

In 2009, Bathurst directed Margot, a biopic of Margot Fonteyn starring Anne-Marie Duff, which focused upon the relationship between Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.^[18]

In 2011, he directed "The National Anthem", the first episode of the anthology television series Black Mirror.^[19]

He has also directed episodes of Urban Gothic, Teachers, and Hustle. In 2013, he was described by Express & Star as "Britain's most exciting director".^[9]

In 2018, he made his feature film directorial debut with Robin Hood.^[20] It starred Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlett, Jamie Foxx as Little John, Tim Minchin as Friar Tuck, Eve Hewson as Maid Marian, and Taron Egerton as the eponymous hero.^[21] The film was universally panned^[22] and was estimated to have lost the studio US$83.7 million.^[23]

Feature film

• Robin Hood (2018)

Television

• Otto Bathurst at IMDb