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Born and raised in Scotland, Tom Vaughan began his film career as a teenager. Earning money from appearing on a TV drama, Vaughan bought a video camera to pursue his burgeoning interest in filmmaking. After studying drama at Bristol University, Vaughan moved to London and started making short films. His first short film, Super Grass, executive produced by Mike Leigh’s producer Simon Channing Williams, went on to win a theatrical distribution deal.  The film played in theaters across the UK as well at film festivals and was bought by Film Four and shown on national and international television.

With casting director Stephanie Duala, Vaughan ran an acting workshop at the Holburn Centre for Performing Arts from which came the ideas and characters for his next short film, Box. A devised piece set around a phone box over one night in London, the  film caught the attention of the organizers of a Levi’s sponsored short film program.  Vaughan’s comedy Still Buzzin’ became the first film made under this scheme and was shown at festivals around the world.  It too won a theatrical distribution deal. On the strength of Still Buzzin, ad agency St. Luke’s approached Vaughan to produce a short film for their BBC Radio 1 campaign. The resulting film, Plotless, was again shown at cinemas across the UK and the four TV spots shot as part of the production went on to win Vaughan a Creative Circle Award for Best Newcomer.  This led to further success in UK commercials. He was named by Campaign magazine as one of the UK’s Hottest Directors and was selected as part of Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes

Film Four fully financed Vaughan’s next short film Truel, a period drama based on a game theory problem, and he took time out of commercials to direct the hit TV show Cold Feet. Vaughan successfully balanced parallel careers directing commercials with TV dramas. This included, among other projects, a four hour period adaptation for the BBC starring Bill Nighy, Anna Massey, Matthew Goode and Laura Fraser called He Knew He Was Right based on the novel by Anthony Trollope.

Vaughan's work for the BBC led to his first feature film, Starter for Ten, based on David Nicholl’s best-selling book of the same name. Set in an English college town in 1985, Starter for Ten starred a host of then new British talent including James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Alice Eve and Dominic Cooper. The film was financed by HBO Films and BBC Films and produced by Playtone and Neal Street Productions.

The success of Starter for Ten led to Vaughan being asked to direct Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher in the hit comedy What Happens in Vegas.  Released in the summer of 2008, the movie was a huge commercial success, making $220 million at the worldwide box office. The producers of Extraordinary Measures approached Vaughan to direct after seeing Starter for Ten. The project went into production at CBS Films in 2009.