Biography
Sam Taylor-Johnson (born Samantha Louise Taylor-Wood; 4 March 1967) is an English director and producer. She is best known for directing the films Nowhere Boy (2009), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), and Love You More (2008).
Known For
Complete Filmography

Back to Black
2024
Director, Executive Producer
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Bl...

A Million Little Pieces
2019
Screenplay, Director, Producer
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.

Half the Picture
2018
as Self
At a pivotal moment for gender equality in Hollywood, successful women directors talk about their art, lives and careers.

The 4%: Film's Gender Problem
2016
as Self
Explores the hot-button issues around the striking gender gap in Hollywood. Both women and men in the entertainment industry share first-person insigh...

Crazy About Tiffany's
2016
as Herself
A provocative and rare glimpse at the most iconic luxury jeweler in the world. From past to present, discovering the behind the scenes creation to tho...

Fifty Shades of Grey
2015
Director
When college senior Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey for their campus paper, little d...

James Bond Supports International Women's Day
2011
Director
This short film is made by 'We Are Equals' to celebrate International Women's Day. James Bond video for international women's day shows 007's feminine...

Nowhere Boy
2009
Director
A rebellious teenager, future Beatle John Lennon lives with his Aunt Mimi in working-class mid-1950s Liverpool, England. Mimi's husband suddenly dies,...

Love You More
2008
Director, Producer
Two teenagers are drawn together by the Buzzcocks' single 'Love You More' during the summer of 1978.

Three Minute Round
2008
Director
Three Minute Round depicts the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, in the moments after defeating their rivals in separate championship boxing ma...

Sigh
2008
Director
Sigh was made in collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra and features a score made especially for it by Academy-Award winning composer Anne Dudle...

That White Rush
2007
Director
Sam Taylor-Wood says she can't believe the silly questions that people keep asking about her latest work, presented in the Ukrainian pavilion. That Wh...

The Servant
2007
Director
The figures in this piece are the fashion designer Bella Freud, daughter of Lucian and granddaughter of Sigmund, and her husband, the writer James Fox...
The Last Century
2006
Director
In her film The Last Century (2006), what appears to be a static image of a group of people slowly reveals itself to be a real, filmed take, timed to ...

Destricted
2006
Director, Writer
A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.

Death Valley
2006
Director
Death Valley is recognised as the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottst places on earth. The rocks tell a story of endless chan...

After Van Halen
2005
Director
The graceful, ephemeral longing highlighted in this work is brought back down to earth with the title – after Van Halen's Jump. Single-screen projecti...

Elton John - Elton in Four Decades
2004
as Self
A 90 minute program of film footage from the Elton John archive, carefully selected for Elton's fans. Elton exclusively gives an overview of the chose...

David
2004
Director
Simply lit from one light source (the lamp in the Madrid hotel room where it was shot) and shot in a single long take after Beckham finished training,...

Ascension
2003
Director
2003 Sam Taylor-Wood video art work featuring a tap dancer

Strings
2003
Director
A string quartet, dressed in black tie, seated in an arc that curves away from the viewer, play part of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 2 in F major ...

Prelude in Air
2002
Director
2002 Sam Taylor-Wood short video art piece featuring a man playing an imaginary string instrument.
A Little Death
2002
Director
Taylor-Johnson updates traditional still life imagery. What seems at first to be a quiet arrangement of a dead hare and peach on a table starts to dec...

Pieta
2001
as Herself
2001 Sam Taylor-Wood video art short
Mute
2001
Director
2001 Sam Taylor-Wood video art work featuring a man praying in silence

Pieta
2001
Director
2001 Sam Taylor-Wood video art short

Still Life
2001
Director
2001 Sam Taylor video art piece featuring rotting fruit in time lapse

Breach (Girl & Eunuch)
2001
Director
Reminiscent of Warhol, Breach depicts a girl in ever-heightening grief, but with the sound of her tears removed. The person inflicting her agony is a...

Hysteria
1999
Director
1999 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece featuring a dancer in agony

Third Party
1999
Director
As Harold Pinter famously said, Taylor-Johnson is 'the weasel under the cocktail cabinet' at this particular party. The erotic undercurrents between t...
Method in Madness
1998
Director
1998 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece featuring a dude goin' nuts

Noli Me Tangere
1998
Director
The title of this piece is the well-known warning of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. It translates to Touch me not. This biblical scen...

Atlantic
1997
Director
In Sam Taylor-Johnson's words, 'I wanted (Atlantic) to feel like you could be coming in, as you say, at any point, not necessarily at the beginning, o...
Sustaining the Crisis
1997
Director
The Swedish actress Amanda Ooms, who appeared in several of Taylor-Johnson's early works, is here juxtaposed with a man who is filmed separately. When...

Knackered
1996
Director
1996 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece focusing on a naked singer
Misfit
1996
Director
The brink of 2000. The misfits refuse to get krunk.

Travesty of a Mockery
1995
Director
A 10 minute film that depicts a man and a woman having an argument. This domestic drama is enacted simultaneously on two separate projected screens—th...
Brontosaurus
1995
Director
Informed by cinematic and documentary traditions, Taylor-Johnson has been working with photography, film and video in London since the early 1990s. Sh...

Killing Time
1994
Director
As four people lip-synch to the grand, passionate sounds of the Richard Strauss opera Elektra, the contrast between the banality of modern life and th...

Pent-Up
1994
Director
The interior monologues of five characters are made audible, giving way to a host of efforts on the part of the viewer to create connections or manufa...
Middlesex
N/A
Director