Michael Keillor

Writer/Director

Add to shortlist

Film, TV & Theatre

Agent: Michelle Archer
Associate Agent: Grace Baxter

Film, TV & Theatre

Michael Keillor started out directing ads, pop promos and shorts films; Basically if it moved, he shot it. This led to a string of hit shows including SHAMELESS, MR SELFRIDGE, SILK, YOUNG JAMES HERRIOT and, most famously, the award winning third season of LINE OF DUTY.

“It’s stomach-clenchingly tense, visceral, shocking – television best watched in body armour”

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

 

Michael’s passion for bold and ambitious projects has since drawn him to work with a talented mix of writers who share his appetite for pushing boundaries and entertaining audiences. Most recently working with Jack Thorne to navigate raw emotion and heartbreak of a family facing the toughest decisions in BEST INTERESTS.

*****Guardian *****Daily Mail *****Times

****Telegraph ****Metro  ****Independent

****Radio Times ****The Financial Times

 

“Beautifully directed by Michael Keillor, and the first-rate performances create a viewing experience that is far from easy but entirely absorbing.”

“Scriptwriter Jack Thorne’s stellar reputation for creating believable and poignant dramas from thorny social issues has only been enhanced by this four-part drama which ends with riveting court scenes and a conclusion that will hit you hard in the guts. Stunning.”

Ben Dowell, The Times

 

“One of the best (although not jolliest) TV dramas of the year.”

James Walton, The Spectator

 

“In one scene Nicci puts make-up on Marnie’s 11-year-old face — mad, absurd Instagram make-up — so she can go on her first and only date, to the cinema with a boy who fancies her and is also soon to die, so they can sit at opposite ends of a row (for fire safety reasons) in their respective wheelchairs, and love it. There are no words I can write to convey how beautiful a scene it is. It made me gasp. None of this is mawkish. What skill, from Thorne, from Horgan, from Moriarty, from all of them, to set up what they are about to lose, all the better to have us appreciate the unspeakable pain of losing it.”

Hugo Rifkind, The Times

 

Prior to BEST INTERESTS, Michael directed David Hare’s four-part political drama ROADKILL, charting the rise of a corrupt and self-serving politician, played with ruthless charisma and impeccable charm by Hugh Laurie.

“Good to be reminded of the enduring truths that power corrupts that charisma tells us nothing of a man or woman, that political ambition is rarely purely a craving to serve the public.”

Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

 

Michael launched JK Rowling’s wounded investigator Cormoran Strike into the canon of world-weary on-screen detectives in STRIKE: THE CUCKOO’S CALLING.

"Vintage and modern, highly watchable and brilliantly cast, Strike is a sure hit"

Matt Baylis, The Express

 

Returning to political thrillers, Michael then directed CHIMERICA, an ambitious four-part adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood's Olivier winning play, set against the backdrop of the 2016 US Presidential election and the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

“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

 

While primarily a director, Michael also writes and develops his own long form projects with all the same energy, drive and originality that informs his filmmaking.

Michael is currently represented in the US by Phil D'Amecourt at WME, and Attorney Michael Schenkman.

 

 

Television

ProductionCompanyNotes

LOCKERBIE

2024

BBC / Netflix

Director and Executive Producer.
Writer: Jonathan Lee
Producer: Julia Stannard.
Executive Producers: Simon Heath and Roderick Seligman.
Starring: Connor Swindells, Patrick J. Adams and Merritt Wever.

2022 - 2023

BBC 1/ Chapter One Pictures

Director and Executive Producer.
Writer: Jack Thorne.
Producer: Jenny Frayn.
Executive Producers: Sophie Gardiner, Toby Bentley.
Starring: Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen
*Winner The Best Actor Award, Series Mania 2023, Michael Sheen
Nominated for Best Limited Series, BAFTAs, 2024
Nominated for Leading Actress, BAFTAS, 2024 - Sharon Horgan
Nominated for Best Limited Series, RTS Awards, 2024
Nominated for Lead Actress, IFTAs, 2024 - Sharon Horgan
*Winner of Best Limited Series, Rockie Awards, 2024

2020

The Forge/PBS/BBC 1

Director and Executive Producer
4-part Drama.
Writer: David Hare.
Producer: Andy Litvin
Exec Producers: George Faber, Mark Pybus, Lucy Richer, David Hare, Michael Keillor.
Starring: Hugh Laurie, Helen McCrory, Pippa Bennett Warner, Sarah Greene, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Iain De Caestecker.
Popular and charismatic politician Peter Laurence is shamelessly untroubled by guilt or remorse as his public and private life fall apart.
*Winner, Original Music Bafta Craft Awards 2021

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.

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.

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

In Development

ProductionCompanyNotes

TIGHTROPE

2020

STV/BBC

Executive Producer: Sarah Brown
Writer: Rae Brunton
A low rent lawyer loses his loose grip on reality

TOO FAR NORTH

2020

WILD MERCURY/BBC

Executive Producer: Derek Wax
Writer: David Macpherson
Prodigal son returns home to a kick in the teeth.

Short Films

ProductionCompanyNotes
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.

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.

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.

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.